panacea

noun

pan·​a·​cea ˌpa-nə-ˈsē-ə How to pronounce panacea (audio)
: a remedy for all ills or difficulties : cure-all
The law will improve the lives of local farmers, but it is no panacea.
panacean adjective

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English speakers took panacea from Latin, but as is the case with many Latin borrowings, the word ultimately traces its roots to Greek: panakēs, meaning "all-healing,” comes from pan-, meaning "all," and akos, meaning “remedy.” The Latin designation Panacea or Panaces was in past centuries awarded to various plants, among them the herb today known as Prunella vulgaris, whose common name is self-heal. In current use, panacea is most often used to decry a remedy that falls far short of what some claim it can do.

Examples of panacea in a Sentence

The law will improve the lives of local farmers, but it is no panacea. a woman who seems to believe that chicken soup is a panacea for nearly everything
Recent Examples on the Web What’s also worth mentioning is that these injections are not a panacea. Joshua Cohen, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2024 Yet the concept of assisted migration, even if no panacea, at least acknowledges the increasing fluidity of the world. Moises Velasquez-Manoff, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2023 And even under ideal circumstances, such a reconstruction would not be a panacea. Curbed, 9 Jan. 2024 My grave concern is the risk of companies using baseless claims to market these tests as a panacea to cure people’s symptoms. Sameer Berry, STAT, 2 Jan. 2024 Numerous celebrities and vitamin companies raised hopes that vitamin D could be a panacea, says JoAnn Manson, an endocrinologist and epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School and a lead investigator on some of the biggest vitamin D studies to date. Christie Aschwanden, Scientific American, 19 Dec. 2023 However, forest restoration has been called both an easy panacea for - and dangerous distraction from - many of the world’s challenges. World Economic Forum, Forbes, 19 Apr. 2023 All too often, humanitarian aid has become a panacea for managing unresolved conflict. Emma Beals and Peter Salisbury, Foreign Affairs, 30 Oct. 2023 The same goes for every other climate solution pitched as a panacea. Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times, 3 Oct. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'panacea.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin panacēa "universal remedy, cure-all," going back to Latin, "any of various medicinal plants," borrowed from Greek panákeia "name of a medicinal plant, universal remedy, (as a personified abstraction) a goddess of healing," derivative of panakḗs "all-healing," from pan- pan- + -akēs, adjective derivative of ákos (neuter s-stem) "cure, remedy, relief," of uncertain origin

Note: If initial aspiration was lost, and the aspiration was the residue of yod, then ákos might be comparable with Old Irish ícc "payment, compensation, redemption, act of curing, healing" (Modern Irish íoc), Middle Welsh yach "healthy" (Modern Welsh iach), Old Cornish iach (glossing Latin sānus), Old Breton iac (glossing Latin suspite = sospite "safe and sound") (Modern Breton yac'h "healthy"). The phonetic details are problematic, however.

First Known Use

1548, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of panacea was in 1548

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Cite this Entry

“Panacea.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/panacea. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

panacea

noun
pan·​a·​cea ˌpan-ə-ˈsē-ə How to pronounce panacea (audio)
: a remedy for all ills or difficulties : cure-all

Medical Definition

panacea

noun
pan·​a·​cea ˌpan-ə-ˈsē-ə How to pronounce panacea (audio)
: a remedy for all ills or difficulties
panacean adjective

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