variants
also academical
1
as in educational
of or relating to schooling or learning especially at an advanced level
"If you spent more time in academic pursuits and less time in social ones, you could easily make good grades," the dean told Valerie
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in intellectual
very learned or educated but inexperienced in practical matters
academic thinkers who have no understanding of realpolitik
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in theoretical
existing only as an assumption or speculation
your arguments are merely academic—such a worst-case scenario is unlikely to ever occur
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in academe
Related Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of academic
Sarah Cutler, Idaho Statesman, 4 May 2026
Quinn enrolled at Georgia Tech in 2019, facing both academic pressure and the realities of living with a disability.
—Donald Fountain, CBS News, 4 May 2026
Ben Paviour, Sacbee.com, 25 Mar. 2026
For a long time, jazz, for me, at least, was sounding real academic.
—Lina Lecaro, Los Angeles Times, 25 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for academic
Adjective
Between 2007 and 2025, the percentage of Mormons who reported leaning Republican dropped by 12%, according to an analysis by market research firm YouGov of data collected by the Cooperative Election Study, the largest academic survey focused on American elections.
—Sarah Cutler, Idaho Statesman, 4 May 2026
Quinn enrolled at Georgia Tech in 2019, facing both academic pressure and the realities of living with a disability.
—Donald Fountain, CBS News, 4 May 2026
Noun
Gamage urged another academic — Jeff Hoopes, a professor at the University of North Carolina who specializes in how people respond to tax law — to review both studies.
—Ben Paviour, Sacbee.com, 25 Mar. 2026
For a long time, jazz, for me, at least, was sounding real academic.
—Lina Lecaro, Los Angeles Times, 25 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for academic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for academic
Adjective
-
Doris Fisher was also an advocate of educational opportunities for disadvantaged students.—
Anne D'Innocenzio,
Chicago Tribune,
5 May 2026
-
The overall goal is to better position the campus to meet the workforce and educational needs across Dallas-Fort Worth.—
Samuel O’Neal
May 4,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
4 May 2026
Adjective
-
But Lemisch’s comes with an intellectual pedigree forged in the history wars of the ’60s and ’70s.—
New York Times,
New York Times,
1 May 2026
-
The games holds that exact intellectual tension at its core.—
Clara Molot,
Vanity Fair,
30 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
With all of the film’s complicated theoretical physics and flowery musings about the power of love and time, going melodramatic could push the film into eyeroll territory.—
Chris Feil,
Vulture,
1 May 2026
-
The emergence of synthetic performers such as Tilly Norwood reflects how quickly those questions have moved from theoretical to practical.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
1 May 2026
Noun
-
Woke doesn't just characterize academe, academe is from where almost every trope of woke originally came.—
Bradley Gitz,
Arkansas Online,
26 Jan. 2026
-
Chinese research took a long while to recover from Mao’s purge of academe.—
Shivaram Rajgopal,
Forbes.com,
17 May 2025
Noun
-
Van Bendegem, who would become a leading scholar on ultrafinitist logic, later addressed these concerns by considering a geometry in which a line or curve has width and is both finite and finitely divisible.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
29 Apr. 2026
-
Ted Kaptchuk, an acupuncturist and leading scholar of the placebo effect, has described this phenomenon in detail.—
Hannah Kerman,
STAT,
29 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
From the scholarly and enlightened to the tough and intimidating, people of all walks of life and cultural backgrounds love a good, thick face of hair.—
BestReviews,
Mercury News,
29 Apr. 2026
-
Likewise, scholarly exchanges are picking up.—
Andy Browne,
semafor.com,
28 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
But as the novel slips into a more speculative mode, Nora is transported to an asylum in the French countryside of 1946.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
1 May 2026
-
Six months ago, people arguing that AI was a bubble were pointing to real-world facts, whereas people arguing against the bubble hypothesis were making speculative promises about the future.—
Rogé Karma,
The Atlantic,
1 May 2026
Noun
-
The project was led by Xu Jianzhong, PhD, a CAS academician and engineering thermophysics expert.—
Georgina Jedikovska,
Interesting Engineering,
31 Mar. 2026
-
Authors call for a worldwide network of government leaders, UN agencies, scientists, academicians and the public, all designed to combat the spread of ultraprocessed foods, prioritizing children.—
Sandee LaMotte,
CNN Money,
18 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Academic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/academic. Accessed 7 May. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
