academic

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• adjective Of or relating to institutionalized education and scholarship, especially at a college or university.
• adjective Of or relating to studies that rely on reading and involve abstract thought rather than being primarily practical or technical.
• adjective Relating to scholarly performance.
• adjective Of or relating to the conservative style of art promoted by an official academy, especially the Académie des Beaux Arts in France in the nineteenth century.
• adjective Having little practical use or value, as by being overly detailed, unengaging, or theoretical.
• adjective Having no important consequence or relevancy.
• noun A faculty member or scholar at an institution of higher learning, such as a university.
• noun One who has an academic viewpoint or a scholarly background.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A member of an academy or learned society; an academist or academician.
• [capitalized] Pertaining to the Academy of Athens, or to Plato and his followers, from his having taught there: as, the Academic groves; the Academic school or philosophy.
• Pertaining to an advanced institution of learning, as a college, a university, or an academy; relating to or connected with higher education: in this and the following senses often, and in the third generally, written academical: as, academic studies; an academical degree.
• Pertaining to that department of a college or university which is concerned with classical, mathematical, and general literary studies, as distinguished from the professional and scientific departments; designed for general as opposed to special instruction.
• [U. S.] Of or pertaining to an academy or association of adepts; marked by or belonging to the character or methods of such an academy; hence, conforming to set rules and traditions; speculative; formal; conventional: as, academical proceedings; an academical controversy; an academic figure (in art).
• noun [capitalized] One who professed to adhere to the philosophy of Plato.
• noun A student in a college or university: as, “a young academic,” Watts, Imp. of Mind.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• adjective Belonging to the school or philosophy of Plato.
• adjective Belonging to an academy or other higher institution of learning; scholarly; literary or classical, in distinction from scientific.
• noun One holding the philosophy of Socrates and Plato; a Platonist.
• noun A member of an academy, college, or university; an academician.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• adjective So scholarly as to be unaware of the outside world; lacking in worldliness.
• adjective Subscribing to the architectural standards of Vitruvius.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• adjective marked by a narrow focus on or display of learning especially its trivial aspects
• adjective hypothetical or theoretical and not expected to produce an immediate or practical result
• adjective associated with academia or an academy
• noun an educator who works at a college or university