of or pertaining to a college, academy, school, or other educational institution, esp. one for higher education

academic requirements.

pertaining to areas of study that are not primarily vocational or applied, as the humanities or pure mathematics.

theoretical or hypothetical; not practical, realistic, or directly useful

an academic question; an academic discussion of a matter already decided.

learned or scholarly but lacking in worldliness, common sense, or practicality.

conforming to set rules, standards, or traditions; conventional

academic painting.

acquired by formal education, esp. at a college or university

academic preparation for the ministry.

( initial capital letter ) of or pertaining to Academe or to the Platonic school of philosophy.

a student or teacher at a college or university.

a person who is academic in background, attitudes, methods, etc.

He was by temperament an academic, concerned with books and the arts.

( initial capital letter ) a person who supports or advocates the Platonic school of philosophy.

academics, the scholarly activities of a school or university, as classroom studies or research projects

more emphasis on academics and less on athletics.

adjective

ignorant , untaught , ordinary , plain , practical , simple

noun

ignoramus

adjective

bookish , book-learned , college , collegiate , erudite , intellectual , learned , pedantic , scholarly , scholastic , studious , university , abstract , closet , conjectural , formalistic , hypothetical , notional , speculative , theoretical , donnish , inkhorn , literary , pedantical , theoretic , didactic , doctrinaire , interdisciplinary , lettered , platonic , postulatory , professorial , suppositional

noun

academician , lecturer , professor , pupil , scholar , scholastic , student , tutor , academe , academia , academy , bookish , classic , collegiate , colloquium , educated , erudite , formal , ivory tower , learned , pedantic , quodlibetic , scholarly , school , seminar , teacher , theoretical , unreal