Academia
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The scientific and cultural community engaged in higher education and research, taken as a whole. collective, uncountable
"Academia continues to provide scientific education, despite attempts to turn it into a system of professional schooling."
- 2 the academic world wordnet
- 3 Continuous study at higher education institutions; scholarship. uncountable
"Not every university graduate wishes to pursue academia."
Example
More examples"The invention of the Internet has revolutionized the world of academia for the better."
Etymology
Borrowed from New Latin acadēmīa, from Ancient Greek Ἀκαδημία (Akadēmía), a grove of trees and gymnasium outside of Athens where Plato taught; from the name of the supposed former owner of that estate, the Attica hero Akademos. Doublet of academe, academy, and Akademeia. Modern sense of “the world of universities and scholarship” recorded from 1956.
Related phrases
More for "academia"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.