-is used to describe ...that relate to ...
academic
1 academic
Academic is used to describe things that relate to the work done in schools, colleges, and universities, especially work which involves studying and reasoning rather than practical or technical skills.
Their academic standards are high.
I was terrible at school and left with few academic qualifications.
ADJ: ADJ n
?academically
He is academically gifted.
I was only average academically, but was good at sports.
ADV
2 academic
Academic is used to describe things that relate to schools, colleges, and universities.
...the start of the last academic year...
I'd had enough of academic life.
ADJ: ADJ n
3 academic
Academic is used to describe work, or a school, college, or university, that places emphasis on studying and reasoning rather than on practical or technical skills.
The author has settled for a more academic approach.
Different schools teach different types of syllabus, from the highly academic to the broadly vocational.
ADJ-GRADED
4 academic
Someone who is academic is good at studying.
The system is failing most disastrously among less academic children.
ADJ-GRADED
5 academic academics
An academic is a member of a university or college who teaches or does research.
N-COUNT
= scholar
6 academic
You can say that a discussion or situation is academic if you think it is not important because it has no real effect or cannot happen.
This was not an academic exercisemsoldiers' lives were at risk.
Such is the size of the problem that these arguments are purely academic.
ADJ-GRADED
= theoretical
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