panacea

• panacaea
• panacæa

From Latin panacēa, from Ancient Greek πανάκεια (panákeia), from πανακής (panakḗs, “all-healing”), from πᾶν (pân, “all”) (equivalent to English pan-) + ἄκος (ákos, “cure”).

• enPR: păn'-ə-sēʹ-ə, IPA^(key): /ˌpæn.əˈsiː.ə/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -iːə

panacea (plural panaceas or panaceae or panaceæ)

1. A remedy believed to cure all disease and prolong life that was originally sought by alchemists; a cure-all.

   Synonym: heal-all

2. A solution to all problems.

   A monorail will be a panacea for our traffic woes.

   • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXVII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 53:

     When busy he was better, and appeared to think perpetual motion a panacea for his unnamed and un-nameable complaint; and so much were they hurried from place to place, after their arrival at Genoa, that both sisters were thankful when they embarked again, as the sea appeared a resting-place...

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 206:

     Podson was seated on the bed, going through such turf forecasts as he could find in the papers; his panacea for correcting the mistakes of fortune.

   • 2023 January 11, “Network News: MPs seek clarity on hydrogen's role”, in RAIL, number 974, page 13:

     Hydrogen is not a panacea for reaching the zero net emissions target by 2050, but it can grow to become "a big niche" fuel in particular sectors and applications, claims a new report.

   • 2023 October 23, Anna Cooban, “Javier Milei wants Argentina to swap the peso for the US dollar. Here’s what that could mean”, in CNN Business‎^[1]:

     But dollarization is not a panacea for Argentina’s crisis-stricken economy, analysts say.

3. (obsolete) The plant allheal (Valeriana officinalis), believed to cure all ills.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     There, whether it diuine Tobacco were, / Or Panachæa, or Polygony, / She found, and brought it to her patient deare […]

• (remedy to cure all disease): catholicon, cure-all, elixir, wonder drug, miracle cure, theriac, balm of Gilead
• (solution to all problems): miracle, magic bullet, silver bullet
• (plant): allheal, woundwort

• (remedy to cure all disease): See mithridate and theriac (universal antidotes)

• nostrum

From Learned borrowing from Latin panacēa, from Ancient Greek πανάκεια (panákeia), from πανακής (panakḗs, “all-healing”), from πᾶν (pân, “all”) + ἄκος (ákos, “cure”).

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [pə.nəˈse.ə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [pa.naˈse.a]

panacea f (plural panacees)

1. panacea

• “panacea”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

From Latin panacēa, from Ancient Greek πανάκεια (panákeia), from πανακής (panakḗs, “all-healing”), from πᾶν (pân, “all”) + ἄκος (ákos, “cure”).

• IPA^(key): /pa.naˈt͡ʃɛ.a/
• Rhymes: -ɛa
• Hyphenation: pa‧na‧cè‧a

panacea f (plural panacee)

1. panacea, cure-all

From Ancient Greek πανάκεια (panákeia) from πανακής (panakḗs, “all-healing”), from πᾶν (pân, “all”) + ἄκος (ákos, “cure”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [pa.naˈkeː.a]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [pa.naˈt͡ʃɛː.a]

panacēa f (genitive panacēae); first declension

1. A particular kind of plant, believed to cure all diseases.
2. panacea, catholicon.

First-declension noun.

• panacinus

• “panacea”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “panacea”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• panacea in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “panacea”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

From Latin panacēa, Ancient Greek πανάκεια (panákeia), from πανακής (panakḗs, “all-healing”), from πᾶν (pân, “all”) + ἄκος (ákos, “cure”).

• IPA^(key): /panaˈθea/ [pa.naˈθe.a] (Spain)
• IPA^(key): /panaˈsea/ [pa.naˈse.a] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -ea
• Syllabification: pa‧na‧ce‧a

panacea f (plural panaceas)

1. panacea

• “panacea”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024