academic
/ˌæk.əˈdɛm.ɪk/
"academic" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“academic” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,604 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #2,604
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Belonging to the school or philosophy of Plato.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | academic |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˌæk.əˈdɛm.ɪk/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #2,604 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “academic” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for academic is 8 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌæk.əˈdɛm.ɪk/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,604 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for academic, with forms such as "aacdemic", "acaddemic", and "acadeimc". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "academy", "academics", "academies", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From both the Medieval Latin acadēmicus and the French académique, from Latin academia, from Ancient Greek ἀκαδημικός (akadēmikós), from Ἀκαδημία (Akadēmía) or Ἀκαδήμεια (Akadḗmeia), the name of the place where Plato taught; compare academy. By surface anal… The correct English form is academic, spelled A-C-A-D-E-M-I-C.
Definition
- 1Belonging to the school or philosophy of Plato.
- 2Belonging to an academy or other higher institution of learning, or a scholarly society or organization.
- 3In particular: relating to literary, classical, or artistic studies like the humanities, rather than to technical or vocational studies like engineering or welding.
- 4Having little practical use or value, as by being overly detailed and unengaging, or by being theoretical and speculative with no practical importance.
- 5Having a love of or aptitude for learning.
- 6Conforming to set rules and traditions; conventional; formalistic.
- 7Conforming to set rules and traditions; conventional; formalistic.
- 8So scholarly as to be unaware of the outside world; lacking in worldliness; inexperienced in practical matters.
Etymology
From both the Medieval Latin acadēmicus and the French académique, from Latin academia, from Ancient Greek ἀκαδημικός (akadēmikós), from Ἀκαδημία (Akadēmía) or Ἀκαδήμεια (Akadḗmeia), the name of the place where Plato taught; compare academy. By surface analysis, academy + -ic.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aacdemic,acaddemic,acadeimc,academci,academicc,academmic,acadmeic,acaedmic,accademic,acdaemic,caademic
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of academic - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "academic"?
What does "academic" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "academic"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “academic”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-C-A-D-E-M-I-C - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌæk.əˈdɛm.ɪk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “academy” - see the side-by-side comparison. academic vs academy
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.