académico
adjectiveCEFR B2
What does “académico” mean in English?
academic
academic (relating to scholarly study, educational institutions, or discourse; rendimiento académico)
Example sentences
Su rendimiento académico mejoró notablemente cuando empezó a recibir apoyo psicopedagógico personalizado.
His academic performance improved markedly when he started receiving personalised educational support.
La propuesta es interesante desde el punto de vista académico, pero tiene escasa aplicación práctica en el sector.
The proposal is interesting from an academic point of view, but it has little practical application in the sector.
El debate entre ambos enfoques sigue siendo puramente académico, ya que ninguno ha sido aplicado a gran escala.
The debate between both approaches remains purely academic, since neither has been applied at scale.
How to use it
Académico/a means 'academic' — relating to education, scholarship, or formal study. Core collocations: rendimiento académico (academic performance), año académico (academic year), formación académica (academic background), debate académico (academic debate). Note: in informal registers it can carry a slightly negative connotation — 'eso es muy académico' sometimes means 'too theoretical, not practical'. Ser vs estar: académico takes ser (it describes a classification, not a temporary state).
Common mistake
Académico is a formal false friend trap: 'academic' in English can describe a scholar (an academic), but académico as a noun (un académico) specifically means a member of an academy or academic institution, not just any university teacher. As an adjective it works as expected. Also: rendimiento académico (not *éxito académico, which is more informal).