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Most historians, I think, try to avoid saying "classical" without a further qualifier -- at least I do, as someone who works with (pre-)Classical Greece, and that's really to avoid privileging Greco-Roman culture at the expense of any other culture. So I'd never say "Classical" this or that without specifying a region or culture: classical Greek art, classical Persian poetry, classical Chinese literature, etc.: if I didn't use the ethnic name, it would just be a rather silly effort to pretend that my culture of choice was the only one that mattered. Within any given culture's history, the exact meaning of "classical" will vary depending on how specific you're being. Rather like with classical Western music: in a broad sense classical music means "any music performed by an orchestra or chamber group or instruments typical of such groups", without any particular dates implied; but if you're being a bit more technical you'll use "classical" to mean "western European art music from the period 1750 to 1825". Similarly, "classical Greece" in a general sense can mean "Greece from ca. 1000 BCE to 500 CE or thereabouts", which would be extremely inclusive; but when people who actually work on ancient Greece say "Classical Period", they're usually using it in a more specific sense, referring to the period from ca. 480 BCE to 323 BCE, which bears that name because it's a convenient pigeonhole for modern historians to use. So in the case of "classical" Greece, we have an Archaic Period (776-480 BCE), Classical (480-323), Hellenistic (323-146), Roman (146 BCE onwards), and maybe other delimiters depending on context. It's perfectly find to use terms like this in a general sense sometimes, more specifically at other times. Context will almost always make it clear which is which. As another example: if I'm talking about "epic", I might use it in a general sense (any long or grandiose narrative) or in a technical sense (a specific genre of poetry, using dactylic hexameter or iambic pentameter rhythm, and informed by a tradition extending from Homeric poetry onwards). Or "lyric", which may be very general (poetry of a generally pretty, thoughtful, or introspective character), semi-specific (ancient Greco-Roman poetry other than epic and drama), or very specific (early Greek poetry designed to be performed by a soloist to the accompaniment of a lyre, using Aeolic rhythms). Again, context will normally make things clear. More on reddit.com

These are mostly non-specific terms. "Ancient" is used mainly to refer to larger areas that are old, especially when the civilization in question was organized differently in the past from today, as in Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Israel. It usually is used when the ancient name for the area is the same as the modern English name. There really is no specific time period that "ancient" refers to, just that it's pretty old and was in a different system back then, in order to separate it from the modern entity of the same name. "Classical" refers to the Greek and Roman sphere. Anything to do with ancient Greece and Rome, basically between maybe 500 BC and 300 AD. "Antiquity" can have a couple meanings. When used referring to a time (as in "in antiquity") it really just means "in the past". Usually referring to the same time periods as "ancient". An antiquity is an artifact of an ancient period. In academia, time periods are referred to by their names, for the sake of accuracy and precision. Rather than talking about Ancient Israel, we might talk about the Iron Age IIa (roughly 1000-925 BC), which is a different time period than the Iron Age IIb-c (925-586 bc), because the culture and organization was very different in those times. Similarly, when dealing with the Classical periods, a scholar might refer to the Severan period of Roman emperors, the Late Roman, etc. The three terms you are describing are very general, and are used in a wide variety of situations by scholars. More on reddit.com

I write papers about extremely niche topics that almost nobody cares about, that’s basically being a classicist. More on reddit.com