ivory tower
Detached intellectual refuge
An ivory tower is a place of privileged detachment from practical concerns—typically academia or other intellectual environments where people theorize without engaging real-world consequences.
The term is almost always critical: He's been in the ivory tower so long he's forgotten how ordinary people live.
Ivory tower academics produce work dismissed as impractical or out of touch.
Emotionally withdrawn, uninviting
- disconnectedSeparated from a source
- removedTaken from position
- insulatedShielded from heat loss
- obliviousLacking any awareness
sheltered · cloistered · bubble · rarefied · privileged · inaccessible · remote · sequestered
Higher education institution
- professorSenior university teacher
- scholarLearned, studious person
- tenureProtected employment status
- dissertationExtended academic treatise
research · faculty · campus · lecture · seminar · academia · publish · theoretical
Impractically perfect in conception
- visionaryImaginative planner of futures
- dreamerOne given to fantasies
- naiveInnocently unsuspecting
- theoreticalBased on hypothesis, untested
philosophical · abstract · impractical · quixotic · romantic · starry-eyed · idealistic · unrealistic
Pretentious social superiority
- exclusivityState of being limited
- superiorityHigher rank or quality
- condescensionDemeaning air of superiority
- intellectualConcerning thought and reason
highbrow · pretentious · arrogant · elitist · classism · self-important · patrician · disdain
aloof
Emotionally withdrawn, uninviting
- disconnectedSeparated from a source
- removedTaken from position
- insulatedShielded from heat loss
oblivious · sheltered · cloistered · bubble · rarefied · privileged · inaccessible · remote · sequestered · impractical
university
Higher education institution
dissertation · research · faculty · campus · lecture · seminar · academia · publish · theoretical · intellectual
utopian
Impractically perfect in conception
theoretical · philosophical · abstract · impractical · quixotic · romantic · starry-eyed · idealistic · unrealistic · fanciful
snobbery
Pretentious social superiority
- exclusivityState of being limited
- superiorityHigher rank or quality
- condescensionDemeaning air of superiority
intellectual · highbrow · pretentious · arrogant · elitist · classism · self-important · patrician · disdain · haughty
- higher educationuniversity, college, degree, diploma, graduate school
- Building metaphorsfoundation, building blocks, cornerstone, pillar, framework
- idealisticidealist, idealistic, utopian, quixotic, dreamer
- out of touchdisconnected, oblivious, unaware, clueless, detached
- AllusionsAchilles heel, Pandora's box, Trojan horse, forbidden fruit, Midas touch
- campus fictionschool stories, campus romance, campus politics, campus protest, college comedy
ivory towerin the field
boots on the ground · hands-on experience · on the ground · in the thick of it · practical experience
ivory towergrassroots
Common people as political base
Main Street · the common people · working-class life · everyday life · the people
ivory towerschool of hard knocks
Education through suffering
hands-on learning · practical experience · fieldwork · real-world application · street smarts