alchemy
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American Heritage Dictionary (2)
- noun A medieval chemical philosophy having as its asserted aims the transmutation of base metals into gold, the discovery of the panacea, and the preparation of the elixir of longevity.
- noun A seemingly magical power or process of transmuting: "He wondered by what alchemy it was changed, so that what sickened him one hour, maddened him with hunger the next” (Marjorie K. Rawlings).
Century Dictionary (4)
GNU Webster's 1913 (1)
WordNet (2)
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- She inherited from her father a taste for alchemy, and spent much time in search after secret elixirs and the like. — Rousseau
- Mr.Holmes. for over nine weeks, unconscious. and raving with brain-fever. — The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
- That's what his alchemy was about Okay, so now we get to it! — AnalogSFF,October2007
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But if the mystical work of alchemy is an inward work in consciousness, then the union between male and female is an union in consciousness; and if we remember the traditions of a state when male and female had not as yet been divided, it may dawn upon us that the higher alchemy was a practice for the return into this ineffable mode of being.
— Bygone Beliefs: being a series of excursions in the byways of thought - Wait! — The White Rose
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View all »Etymologies (3)
American Heritage Dictionary (1)
- Middle English alkamie, from Old French alquemie, from Medieval Latin alchymia, from Arabic al-kīmiyā' : al-, the + kīmiyā', chemistry (from Late Greek khēmeia, khumeia, perhaps from Greek Khēmia, Egypt).
Century Dictionary (1)
GNU Webster's 1913 (1)
WordNet
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Pronunciations
/ (ălˈkə-mē)/
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American Heritage Dictionary