Word.ws English Dictionary

archeus

UK/ɑːˈkiːəs/

archeus noun: the vital principle or force believed by the Paracelsians to be responsible for alchemical reactions within living bodies, and hence for the growth and continuation of life.

Noun

archeus (plural archei)

  1. The vital principle or force believed by the Paracelsians to be responsible for alchemical reactions within living bodies, and hence for the growth and continuation of life.
    • [T]o acknovvledge any other Archeus, being inextricable difficulties along vvith it. For vvhere, ſay they, vvere all the Archei vvhich ſhap'd the VVaſps out of an Horſes Carcaſe? Are they parts of the Horſes Soul, or nevv intruding gueſts upon the old ones being ejected?1653, Henry More, chapter XI, in An Antidote against Atheisme, or An Appeal to the Natural Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether There Be Not a God, London: […] Roger Daniel, […], →OCLC, book III...
    • Willis rejected not just scholasticism's ‘substantial forms’ but Paracelsus's ‘archeus’ doctrine as well.2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Penguin, published 2004, page 56

Forms of archeus

pluralarchei
alternative formarchaeus

Origin of archeus

From Ancient Greek ἀρχαῖος (arkhaîos, “original, ancient”).

Questions about archeus

What does archeus mean?
Archeus means the vital principle or force believed by the Paracelsians to be responsible for alchemical reactions within living bodies, and hence for the growth and continuation of life.
What part of speech is archeus?
Archeus is a noun.
How do you pronounce archeus?
Archeus is pronounced /ɑːˈkiːəs/ (UK).
What is the plural of archeus?
The plural of archeus is archei.

Words near archeus in the dictionary

  1. archetyping
  2. archetypist
  3. archetypists
  4. archetypoid
  5. archetypoids
  6. archeus
  7. Archey
  8. Archey's frog
  9. Archey's frogs
  10. Archeys
  11. archfiend

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: archeus (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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