Word.ws English Dictionary

Midas touch

Syllables: Mi·das touchUK/ˌmaɪdəs ˈtʌt͡ʃ/

Midas touch proper noun: the ability to turn everything one touches into gold.

Proper noun

Midas touch

  1. (Greek, literally) The ability to turn everything one touches into gold.
    • All phenomena that arouse moral indignation if they occur in bourgeois society are turned to gold, as if by a Midas touch, if they serve the interests of the new power: the armed invasion of a foreign state is liberation, aggression is defence, tortures represent the people's noble rage against the...1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in...
  2. (idiomatic) The ability to achieve financial reward (or, more generally, success) from one's actions easily and consistently.
    Synonyms:
    golden touch

Synonyms of Midas touch

Antonyms

Origin of Midas touch

From the Greek legend of King Midas, related in chapter XI of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (8 C.E.), whom Dionysus (the god of, among other things, wine and winemaking) gave the power to turn things to gold by touching them.

Words formed from Midas touch

Questions about Midas touch

What does Midas touch mean?
Midas touch means the ability to turn everything one touches into gold.
What part of speech is Midas touch?
Midas touch is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Midas touch?
Midas touch is pronounced /ˌmaɪdəs ˈtʌt͡ʃ/ (UK).

Words near Midas touch in the dictionary

  1. midarm
  2. midarms
  3. Midas
  4. Midas flies
  5. Midas fly
  6. Midas touch
  7. Midas's ear
  8. Midas's ears
  9. Midas-like
  10. Midases
  11. Midasian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Midas touch (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-Midas touch.ogg.

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