alchemy

UK: /ˈælkəmi/ US: /ˈælkəmi/ ,(al′kə mē)

Inflections of 'alchemy' (n): npl: alchemies

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

al•che•my /ˈælkəmi/   n. [uncountable]

1. a form of chemistry of the Middle Ages that tried to discover an elixir of life and a method for changing ordinary metals into gold.
2. any seemingly magical process of changing something ordinary into something superior.

al•che•mist, n. [countable]

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

al•che•my  (al′kə mē), n., pl. -mies for 2.

1. a form of chemistry and speculative philosophy practiced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and concerned principally with discovering methods for transmuting baser metals into gold and with finding a universal solvent and an elixir of life.
2. any magical power or process of transmuting a common substance, usually of little value, into a substance of great value.

• Greek kēmeía transmutation; replacing Middle English alconomye, equivalent. to alk(imie) + (astr)onomye astronomy
• Arabic al the + kīmiyā'
• Medieval Latin alchymia
• Old French alquemie
• 1325–1375; earlier alchimie

al•chem•ic  (al kem′ik), al•chem′i•cal, al•che•mis•tic  (al′kə mis′tik), al′che•mis′ti•cal, adj.  al•chem′i•cal•ly, adv. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

alchemy / ˈælkəmɪ/ noun ( -mies)

1. the pseudoscientific predecessor of chemistry that sought a method of transmuting base metals into gold, an elixir to prolong life indefinitely, a panacea or universal remedy, and an alkahest or universal solvent
2. a power like that of alchemy: her beauty had a potent alchemy

Etymology: 14th Century alkamye, via Old French from Medieval Latin alchimia, from Arabic al-kīmiyā', from al the + kīmiyā' transmutation, from Late Greek khēmeia the art of transmutation

alchemic / ælˈkɛmɪk/, alˈchemical, ˌalchemˈistic adjective