academy

Etymology

From French académie, from 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 Attic hero Akademos. Doublet of academia and Akademeia; compare academe.

noun

1. (classical studies, usually capitalized) The garden where Plato taught.
2. (classical studies, usually capitalized) Plato's philosophical system based on skepticism; Plato's followers.
3. An institution for the study of higher learning; a college or a university; typically a private school.
   The artists of London had long maintained a private academy for improvement in the art of drawing from living figures 1760–5, Tobias Smollett, The history of England from the revolution in 1688, to the death of George II, published 1805, page 449
   In this year 1633, I became acquainted with Nicholas Fiske, licentiate in physic, who was born in Suffolk, near Framingham* Castle, of very good parentage, who educated him at country schools, until he was fit for the university; but he went not to the academy, studying at home both astrology and physic, which he afterwards practised in Colchester; and there was well acquainted with Dr Gilbert, who wrote "De Magnete". 1776, David Hume, The life of David Hume
4. A school or place of training in which some special art is taught.
   the military academy at West Point; a riding academy; the Academy of Music.; a music academy; a language academy
   Rudolf was the bold, bad Baron of traditional melodrama. Irene was young, as pretty as a picture, fresh from a music academy in England. He was the scion of an ancient noble family; she an orphan without money or friends. 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 9, in Crime out of Mind
5. A society of learned people united for the advancement of the arts and sciences, and literature, or some particular art or science.
   the French Academy; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; academies of literature and philology.
6. (obsolete) The knowledge disseminated in an Academy.
7. (with the, without reference to any specific academy) Academia.
   In the academy and outside of it, the privileging of technical expertise above other forms of knowledge is a political gesture, and one that has proved highly effective in neutralizing critique of established power relations. 2016, Neoliberal Tools (and Archives): A Political History of Digital Humanities
8. A body of established opinion in a particular field, regarded as authoritative.
9. (UK, education) A school directly funded by central government, independent of local control.