panacea

noun

pan·a·cea ˌpa-nə-ˈsē-ə

Synonyms of panacea next

: a remedy for all ills or difficulties : cure-all

The law will improve the lives of local farmers, but it is no panacea.

panacean

ˌpa-nə-ˈsē-ən

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 While not a panacea for the heat, body-cooling foods and no-cook diets could help to lower body temperature and make record-breaking heat waves a little more bearable.. Living safely in consistently hot climates means staying hydrated, especially with chilled drinks or fruits. —

Alice Park, Time, 20 July 2023 Many Internet posters, along with some researchers and journalists, have positioned a room-temperature superconductor as a technological panacea for climate change that could accelerate the world’s transition away from reliance on fossil fuels. —

Lauren Leffer, Scientific American, 14 Aug. 2023 This isn’t a panacea, but companies can constructively vent off competing pressures for public issue engagement by modeling cross-partisanship and goodwill. —

Tucker Eskew, Fortune, 19 July 2023 But even with more young people on board, street vending is unlikely to be a panacea for China’s economic troubles. —

Stephanie Yang, Los Angeles Times, 27 June 2023 This is not, however, to label video games as a panacea for mental health. —

David Dupee, Fortune, 2 May 2023 That doesn’t mean bumping up protein is a metabolic panacea. —

Emily Willingham, Scientific American, 14 June 2023 Maine is the panacea for feeling frantic and disconnected. —

Marissa Hermer, Travel + Leisure, 27 May 2023 Sanctions are not a panacea, and, as Ukraine’s victories over Russia on the battlefield have demonstrated, economic warfare is no substitute for the real thing. —

Peter Harrell, Foreign Affairs, 27 Mar. 2023 See More

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.