academic vs concrete

academic

adj
  • Having little practical use or value, as by being overly detailed and unengaging, or by being theoretical and speculative with no practical importance. 

  • Having a love of or aptitude for learning. 

  • Belonging to the school or philosophy of Plato 

  • So scholarly as to be unaware of the outside world; lacking in worldliness; inexperienced in practical matters. 

  • Belonging to an academy or other higher institution of learning, or a scholarly society or organization. 

  • Conforming to set rules and traditions; conventional; formalistic. 

  • In particular: relating to literary, classical, or artistic studies like the humanities, rather than to technical or vocational studies like engineering or welding. 

  • Subscribing to the architectural standards of Vitruvius. 

noun
  • A senior member of an academy, college, or university; a person who attends an academy; a person engaged in scholarly pursuits; one who is academic in practice. 

  • A member of the Academy; an academician. 

  • A follower of Plato, a Platonist. 

  • Academic studies. 

  • Academic dress; academicals. 

concrete

adj
  • Being or applying to actual things, not abstract qualities or categories. 

  • Made of concrete, a building material. 

  • Real, actual, tangible. 

  • Particular, specific, rather than general. 

  • United by coalescence of separate particles, or liquid, into one mass or solid. 

verb
  • To solidify: to change from being abstract to being concrete (actual, real). 

  • To cover with or encase in concrete (building material). 

noun
  • An extract of herbal materials that has a semi-solid consistency, especially when such materials are partly aromatic. 

  • Specifically, a building material created by mixing cement, water, and aggregate such as gravel and sand. 

  • Sugar boiled down from cane juice to a solid mass. 

  • A dessert of frozen custard with various toppings. 

  • A term designating both a quality and the subject in which it exists; a concrete term. 

How often have the words academic and concrete occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )