Word.ws English Dictionary

magic bullet

magic bullet noun: a simple remedy for a difficult or complex problem, especially a cure for a disease.

Noun

magic bullet (plural magic bullets)

  1. (idiomatic) A simple remedy for a difficult or complex problem, especially a cure for a disease.
    • In recent years, penicillin-based drugs have lost some of their magic bullet status due to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
    • History shows that there's no magic bullet for a global financial crisis.

Synonyms of magic bullet

Forms of magic bullet

pluralmagic bullets

Origin of magic bullet

Calque of German Zauberkugel. Coined by physician Paul Ehrlich as an allusion to the opera Der Freischütz. Compare silver bullet, from werewolf lore.

Questions about magic bullet

What does magic bullet mean?
Magic bullet means a simple remedy for a difficult or complex problem, especially a cure for a disease.
What part of speech is magic bullet?
Magic bullet is a noun.
What is the plural of magic bullet?
The plural of magic bullet is magic bullets.

Words near magic bullet in the dictionary

  1. magic acids
  2. magic asterisk
  3. magic asterisks
  4. magic box
  5. magic boxes
  6. magic bullet
  7. magic bullets
  8. magic carpet
  9. magic carpets
  10. magic circle
  11. magic circles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: magic bullet (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-magic bullet.ogg.

Cite this entry: “magic bullet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/magic_bullet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.