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a·cad·e·my

(ə-kădə-mē)

n. pl. a·cad·e·mies

1. A school for special instruction.

2. A secondary or college-preparatory school, especially a private one.

a. The academic community; academe: "When there's moral leadership from the White House and from the academy, people tend to adjust" (Jesse Jackson).

b. Higher education in general. Used with the.

c. A society of scholars, scientists, or artists.

4. Academy

a. Plato's school for advanced education and the first institutional school of philosophy.

b. Platonism.

c. The disciples of Plato.

[Latin Acadēmīa, the school where Plato taught, from Greek Akadēmeia.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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