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
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Recent Examples of academic
Erika Gonzalez, CBS News, 16 Mar. 2026
Arancibia, a Chicano studies professor and board trustee at Sweetwater Union High School District, drew on decades of community organizing and academic work.
—Walker Armstrong, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Mar. 2026
Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 4 Mar. 2026
Building a life Whether as a runner or an academic, Sarah has spent her life in training.
—Gerald Witt, AJC.com, 1 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for academic
Adjective
At Alpha Miami, students start the day on laptops working through individualized academic programs.
—Erika Gonzalez, CBS News, 16 Mar. 2026
Arancibia, a Chicano studies professor and board trustee at Sweetwater Union High School District, drew on decades of community organizing and academic work.
—Walker Armstrong, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Mar. 2026
Noun
Advertisement Gyllenhaal’s debut picture, 2021’s Elena Ferrante adaptation The Lost Daughter—with Olivia Colman as a prickly academic on holiday, played, in her younger incarnation, by Buckley—was similarly ambitious, but its urgent, freewheeling sense of discovery worked in its favor.
—Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 4 Mar. 2026
Building a life Whether as a runner or an academic, Sarah has spent her life in training.
—Gerald Witt, AJC.com, 1 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for academic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for academic
Adjective
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Pathways to Citizenship is committed to cultivating the next generation of advocates through meaningful volunteer opportunities while providing skilled legal representation and educational support for immigrant families throughout San Diego.—
News Release,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
16 Mar. 2026
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Angela Noel, daughter of the late educator and civil rights activist, said her mother's push for educational equity was not without resistance.—
Anna Alejo,
CBS News,
16 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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But the cinematic room is so great for making sure that these intellectual ideas become visceral.—
Georg Szalai,
HollywoodReporter,
13 Mar. 2026
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Radić, who is 60 and the second Chilean architect to win the award, has designed dozens of buildings that have earned him a formidable reputation in artistic and intellectual circles.—
Neda Ulaby,
NPR,
12 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Perhaps, now that my theoretical love life was upon all of us, my mother was having second thoughts about the value of my happiness.—
Han Ong,
New Yorker,
15 Mar. 2026
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However, a new theoretical study suggests that the road to this promise is much longer than many researchers had hoped.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
14 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Woke doesn't just characterize academe, academe is from where almost every trope of woke originally came.—
Bradley Gitz,
Arkansas Online,
26 Jan. 2026
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Chinese research took a long while to recover from Mao’s purge of academe.—
Shivaram Rajgopal,
Forbes.com,
17 May 2025
Noun
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Predictive text leads to predictive writing As many scholars have noted, though, this vision of writing was never fully accurate.—
Gayle Rogers,
The Conversation,
17 Mar. 2026
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Sam Winter-Levy is a fellow at the Technology and International Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where Anton Leicht is a visiting scholar.—
Wendy R. Anderson,
Washington Post,
17 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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One scholarly paper found that the typical retiree who claims before 70 loses $182,370 in potential Social Security income.—
Daniel de Visé,
USA Today,
15 Mar. 2026
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Leslie Hairston, a former City Council colleague of Preckwinkle’s whose South Side ward abutted hers, said Preckwinkle’s scholarly disposition shouldn’t be mistaken for indifference.—
A.D. Quig,
Chicago Tribune,
11 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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The building features 28-foot clear heights, concrete tilt-panel construction, 4,032 square feet of speculative office space, trailer parking and is designed to accommodate a wide range of user needs.—
Jessica Alvarado Gamez,
Denver Post,
10 Mar. 2026
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If the surprisingly rough-and-tumble world of 16th-century playwrights doesn’t immediately compel you, know that this is the kind of book in which every page is filled with an unexpected twist or insight (however speculative or hard to prove these conclusions may turn out to be).—
Rhian Sasseen,
The Atlantic,
10 Mar. 2026
Noun
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There’s little scaffolding or bridging, virtually no space given to centralized agencies, which most development academicians would agree still have their place.—
Alexander Puutio,
Forbes.com,
25 Apr. 2025
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Other founding principals include fellow academicians Andrei Shleifer and Robert Vishny.—
Charles Rotblut,
Forbes,
18 Dec. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Academic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/academic. Accessed 20 Mar. 2026.
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