An academy of sciences is a type of learned society or academy (as special scientific institution) dedicated to sciences that may or may not be state funded. Some state funded academies are national, or royal (i.e. United Kingdom's Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge) as a form of honor.
The other type of academies are Academy of Arts or combination of both (e.g., American Academy of Arts and Sciences).Academy of Letters is another related expression, encompassing literature.In non-English-speaking countries, the range of academic fields of the members of a national Academy of Science often includes scholarly disciplines which would not normally be classed as "science" in English. Many languages use a broad term for systematized learning which includes both natural sciences and social sciences and fields such as literary studies, linguistics, history, or art history. (Often these terms are calques from Latin scientia (the etymological source of English science) and, accordingly, derivatives of the verb 'know', such as German Wissenschaft, Swedish vetenskap, Hungarian tudomány, Estonian teadus or Finnish tiede.) Accordingly, for example the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften), the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia), or the Estonian Academy of Sciences (Eesti Teaduste Akadeemia) also cover the areas of social sciences and humanities.
