Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A remedy for all diseases, evils, or difficulties; a cure-all.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A remedy for all diseases or evils; a universal, remedy or medicine; a catholicon.
  • noun An herb or root believed to possess extraordinary healing properties, probably ginseng.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A remedy for all diseases; a universal medicine; a cure-all; catholicon; hence, a relief or solace for affliction.
  • noun (Bot.) The herb allheal.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A remedy believed to cure all disease and prolong life that was originally sought by alchemists; a cure-all.
  • noun Something that will solve all problems.
  • noun obsolete A particular plant believed to provide a cure-all.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun hypothetical remedy for all ills or diseases; once sought by the alchemists
  • noun (Greek mythology) the goddess of healing; daughter of Aesculapius and sister of Hygeia

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin panacēa, from Greek panakeia, from panakēs, all-healing : pan-, pan- + akos, cure.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin panacēa, from Ancient Greek πανάκεια (panakeia), from πανακής (panakēs, "all-healing"), from πᾶν (pan, "all") (equivalent to English pan-) + ἄκος (akos, "cure").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word panacea.

Examples

  • Panax, the genus name, comes from the Latin word panacea, meaning “cure-all,” and indeed, the claims for ginseng, of which scientists have historically been skeptical, imply a near-miraculous ability to address a wide variety of problems.

    The Best Alternative Medicine Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier 2000

  • Panax, the genus name, comes from the Latin word panacea, meaning “cure-all,” and indeed, the claims for ginseng, of which scientists have historically been skeptical, imply a near-miraculous ability to address a wide variety of problems.

    The Best Alternative Medicine Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier 2000

  • But education, which we speak of as a panacea for all ills, only deals with what it finds, and does not, as we ought to claim, rub down bad points and accentuate good, and it is this, that perhaps more than anything else has made me a Determinist, that the very capacity for change and improvement is so native to some characters, and so utterly lacking to others.

    Memoirs of Arthur Hamilton, B. A. Of Trinity College, Cambridge Extracted From His Letters And Diaries, With Reminiscences Of His Conversation By His Friend Christopher Carr Of The Same College Arthur Christopher Benson 1893

  • But education, which we speak of as a panacea for all ills, only deals with what it finds, and does not, as we ought to claim, rub down bad points and accentuate good, and it is this, that perhaps more than anything else has made me a Determinist, that the very capacity for change and improvement is so native to some characters, and so utterly lacking to others.

    Memoirs of Arthur Hamilton B A Of Trinity College Cambridge Benson, Arthur C. 1886

  • Printing money may sound attractive to the desperate, but it is at best a short-term panacea, which solves nothing in the long run, and creates its own set of complications and economic distortions.

    Sheldon Filger: European Central Bank And The Sovereign Debt Crisis Sheldon Filger 2011

  • Printing money may sound attractive to the desperate, but it is at best a short-term panacea, which solves nothing in the long run, and creates its own set of complications and economic distortions.

    Sheldon Filger: European Central Bank And The Sovereign Debt Crisis Sheldon Filger 2011

  • Bush and Kristol's "troop surge" panacea is most likely totally wrong, but how Bush went about it shows that he privileges electoral necessity over military necessity.

    Archive 2007-01-01 2007

  • Ethanol of course is often described as a panacea but it comes with problems of its own.

    CNN Transcript Jun 19, 2006 2006

  • "Last week's bond buying by the ECB was a short-term panacea but it does not resolve the underlying problems," said Neil MacKinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital.

    SFGate: Top News Stories By GABRIELE STEINHAUSER 2010

  • "Last week's bond buying by the ECB was a short-term panacea but it does not resolve the underlying problems," said Neil MacKinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital.

    Eurozone under pressure to aid euro with more cash - Yahoo! Finance 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.