Which meaning best defines 'academic'?

• A. Theoretical; not practical
• B. Related to school or scholarly subjects
• C. Scholarly; good at studying
• D. A field of study

Answer: (B)

The word means anything related to formal education and scholarly work. That makes the option describing something as related to school or scholarly subjects the best fit, because it directly names the domain where this word is commonly used—schools, universities, and scholarly disciplines.

It isn’t mainly about being theoretical and not practical, even though some academic work can be theoretical; the primary sense is the connection to education and scholarship. It also isn’t about a person who is good at studying, which would describe a person or their ability rather than the general sense of the word. And while a field of study is a subject area, the term here is an adjective describing things tied to schooling and scholarship, not a noun for a field itself.