panacea

noun

pan·a·cea | \ ˌpa-nə-ˈsē-ə

Definition of panacea

: a remedy for all ills or difficulties : cure-all The law will improve the lives of local farmers, but it is no panacea.

Other Words from panacea Synonyms Panacea Comes From the Name of a Greek Goddess More Example Sentences Learn More about panacea

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Panacea Comes From the Name of a Greek Goddess

Panacea comes from a Greek word meaning "all-healing", and Panacea was the goddess of healing. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, alchemists who sought to concoct the "elixir of life" (which would give eternal life) and the "philosopher's stone" (which would turn ordinary metals into gold) also labored to find the panacea. But no such medicine was ever found, just as no solution to all of a society's difficulties has ever been found. Thus, panacea is almost always used to criticize the very idea of a total solution ("There's no panacea for the current problems plaguing Wall Street").

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

So perhaps a change of scenery will prove the panacea. — Ira Winderman, sun-sentinel.com, "ASK IRA: Does Butler’s arrival mean less opportunity for Herro?," 4 July 2019 Viewed from this perspective, statist health-care reform seems more like a false pledge than a real panacea: a magic pill that, once swallowed, will obviate our responsibility to confront our ailing relationships and unhealthy choices. — William A. Estes, National Review, "The American Medical Association Flirts with Socialized Medicine," 28 June 2019 Facebook has leaned on artificial intelligence as a kind of panacea for its moderation woes. — Nick Statt, The Verge, "Hundreds of active and former police officers are part of extremist Facebook groups," 14 June 2019 Experts warn the treatment is not a panacea and should be used with caution. — The Washington Post, The Denver Post, "Alabama governor signs “chemical castration” bill for some sex offenders," 11 June 2019 New York Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes agrees legalizing marijuana isn’t a panacea for minority communities. — Jennifer Peltz, The Seattle Times, "Pot ‘legalization 2.0’: Social equity becomes a key question," 20 May 2019 If the movement ends once big businesses can cash in on health and beauty products, marketed with dubious claims that cast CBD as a panacea, then the movement has failed. — Amber Senter, Marie Claire, "We Have to Acknowledge That CBD Use Is a Privilege," 11 Apr. 2019 While ad-free subscription models have worked for some platforms—notably Amazon (amzn, +0.73%) Prime and Netflix—they’re hardly a panacea. — Ralf Jacob, Fortune, "AI Is About to Make Video Ads a Lot Less Annoying," 26 June 2018 And our flying-car fetish has been a bogus panacea all along—every crash would be an air disaster. — Smith Henderson, Popular Mechanics, "I Went to the Opening of Elon Musk's First Boring Company Tunnel and Here Is What I Found," 19 Dec. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'panacea.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.