[L. academia.] Originally, it is said, a garden, grove, or villa, near Athens, where Plato and his followers held their philosophical conferences.

1. A school, or seminary of learning, holding a rank between a university or college, and a common school; also a school for teaching a particular art, or particular sciences, as a military academy.

2. A house in which the students or members of an academy meet; a place of education.

3. A society of men united for the promotion of arts and sciences in general, or of some particular art.