Added 9 October 2026
academia
/ˌæk.əˈdiː.mɪ.ə/ noun
Latin root: acadēmīa Wiktionary
noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about academia at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
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The scientific and cultural community engaged in higher education and research, taken as a whole. .mw-parser-output .defdate{font-size:smaller}
Academia continues to provide scientific education, despite attempts to turn it into a system of professional schooling.
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Continuous study at higher education institutions; scholarship.
Not every university graduate wishes to pursue academia.
Origin
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.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)