academic meaning
EN
[ˌæk.əˈdɛm.ɪk] [-ɛmɪk] 
US WAcademic
EN Academic 
- NounPLacademicsSUF-emic
- (usually capitalized) A follower of Plato, a Platonist.
- A senior member of an academy, college, or university; a person who attends an academy; a person engaged in scholarly pursuits; one who is academic in practice.
- Academics [ …] see integrated systems for collecting, processing and acting on data as offering a “second electrification” to the world’s metropolises.
- A member of the Academy; an academician.
- (plural only) Academic dress; academicals.
- (plural only) Academic studies.
- (usually capitalized) A follower of Plato, a Platonist.
- AdjectiveCOMmore academicSUPmost academic
- Belonging to the school or philosophy of Plato; as, the academic sect or philosophy.
- Belonging to an academy or other higher institution of learning; also a scholarly society or organization.
- Theoretical or speculative; abstract; scholarly, literary or classical, in distinction to practical or vocational; having no practical importance.
- I have always had an academic interest in hacking.
- Having a love of or aptitude for learning.
- I'm more academic than athletic — I get lower marks in phys. ed. than in anything else.
- (art) Conforming to set rules and traditions; conventional; formalistic.
- So scholarly as to be unaware of the outside world; lacking in worldliness.
- Subscribing to the architectural standards of Vitruvius.
- Belonging to the school or philosophy of Plato; as, the academic sect or philosophy.
- More Examples
- Used in the Middle of Sentence
- The practice has come under attack, especially by academics who accuse neuromarketers of selling junk science.
- None of this is to suggest that academic libraries should turn their websites into a YouTube or Facebook in which our user communities would create all the content, [ …]
- He remembers feeling that people looked down on him, and, ‘realising I was rubbish at academic stuff’, he decided he'd join a circus.
- Used in the Middle of Sentence
Definition of academic in English Dictionary
- Part-of-Speech Hierarchy
- Adjectives
- Nouns
- Countable nouns
- Pluralia tantum
- Countable nouns
- Adjectives
- en academical
- en academician
- en academics
- en academically
- en academicals
Source: Wiktionary
Grammatically, this word "academic" is an adjective. It's also a noun, more specifically, a countable noun and a pluralia tantum.