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
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Recent Examples of academic
Charlotte Goddu, New Yorker, 23 Feb. 2026
Some have been on the front lines of racial integration or introduced innovative academic programs into communities.
—Keri Heath, Austin American Statesman, 23 Feb. 2026
Jonny Thomson, Big Think, 11 Feb. 2026
Hedda — the bored, mercurial and vicious wife of a mediocre academic — is known as the Hamlet of women’s roles because it’s widely considered the most complex female part ever written for the stage.
—Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for academic
Adjective
The only child of an artist mother from Beijing and an academic father from Massachusetts, Pickowicz ate hot pot on Christmas Eve and birthdays.
—Charlotte Goddu, New Yorker, 23 Feb. 2026
Some have been on the front lines of racial integration or introduced innovative academic programs into communities.
—Keri Heath, Austin American Statesman, 23 Feb. 2026
Noun
Cipolla was an economist, historian, and popular Italian academic who died at the turn of the millennium.
—Jonny Thomson, Big Think, 11 Feb. 2026
Hedda — the bored, mercurial and vicious wife of a mediocre academic — is known as the Hamlet of women’s roles because it’s widely considered the most complex female part ever written for the stage.
—Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for academic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for academic
Adjective
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Critics warn the transfers will confuse schools and harm students, arguing agencies lack educational expertise.—
Annie Ma,
Los Angeles Times,
24 Feb. 2026
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Rachel Gittleman, the union's president, said moving programs for schools to places without the right educational expertise will create confusion, not efficiency.—
Zachary Schermele,
USA Today,
23 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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And at that point, ushered into the floating mists of non-consensus with murmurings of political unease regarding content or intellectual befuddlement regarding style, the briefly sighted, singular beast of language vanishes from the visible landscape.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
19 Feb. 2026
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Only the party of such intellectual giants as Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar and Eric Swalwell could conclude this is a logical course of action.—
Chris Roemer,
Baltimore Sun,
19 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Earlier theoretical work showed that combining spatial mode sorting with long-baseline interferometry could reach the true quantum limit for resolving two stars.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
21 Feb. 2026
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The firm’s Chapter 11 practice is intentionally selective, focusing on cases with realistic paths to confirmation rather than theoretical restructuring plans.—
Daniel Fusch,
USA Today,
20 Feb. 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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Experts, scholars and market signals have sounded the alarm.—
Les Rubin,
Boston Herald,
25 Feb. 2026
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Over the years, scholars have interpreted the markings to mean many different things, including hunting tallies, moon calendars, fur patterns or simply decoration.—
Jacopo Prisco,
CNN Money,
25 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Internal decision-making can become polarized, funding relationships strained, and exhibitions evaluated through ideological lenses rather than scholarly merit.—
William Jones,
USA Today,
10 Feb. 2026
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The fact that Katherine had been institutionalized may have tainted her scholarly reputation.—
Margaret Talbot,
New Yorker,
26 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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It should be noted that in-hand images of the black colorway have yet to surface and pictured here are instead speculative mock-ups of what the pair is expected to look like.—
Riley Jones,
Footwear News,
21 Feb. 2026
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With a top-notch cast and slick production design, Churchill’s clever concoction of speculative fiction, corporate satire and family drama remains sharp and timely.—
Emily McClanathan,
Chicago Tribune,
20 Feb. 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 26 Feb. 2026.
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