academic

«academic» in Mova's school dictionary: to do with school, study and learning, especially… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (academic); noun (an academic, academics)

meaning for a pupil

1) Academic means to do with school, study and learning, especially reading, writing and maths rather than practical skills. tree →

2) An academic is a person who teaches or does research at a university. tree →

3) (formal) A question that is academic does not matter in real life because it will not change anything. tree →

sense in the lessons

In school life: the academic year, academic results. In formal texts: academic writing. The phrase "it's academic" means it no longer matters. Phrases: academic year, academic work, academic success, purely academic.

examples

• The academic year starts after the summer holidays in the UK. tree →
• She is very academic and loves books. tree →
• His uncle is an academic at a university. tree →
• Sport and academic subjects are both important. tree →
• Whether we would have won is academic now; the game is over. tree →
• Academic writing uses formal words. tree →
• Our school is proud of its academic results. tree →
• He is good at practical things as well as academic ones. tree →

note

Starts with a vowel: "an academic". Pronounced ak-uh-DEM-ik. Noun: academy (a school), academia. Trap: the academic year does not start in January; in Australia and NZ it does start early in the calendar year, in the UK and USA in late summer.

In the corpora

• "Not the most academic" means not clever at school work; it is a polite way to put it.
• "More practical than academic" means not good at school or books, but often good at doing things with the hands.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «academic» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.