philosopher's stone
philosopher's stone noun: a supposed substance able to turn base metals, such as lead or mercury, into gold or silver, also sometimes claimed to cure any illness (as panacea) or confer immortality (as elixir of life), among other functions.
Noun (1)
philosopher's stone (plural philosopher's stones)
- A supposed substance able to turn base metals, such as lead or mercury, into gold or silver, also sometimes claimed to cure any illness (as panacea) or confer immortality (as elixir of life), among other functions.
- Men talke much […] of the Philoſophers ſtone, that it turneth copper into gold; […]1611, [Miles Smith], “The Translators to the Reader”, in The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC
- […] I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life.1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding...
- Synonyms:
- philosopher's egg, sorcerer's stone
- A piece of such a substance.
Noun (2) capitalized: Philosopher's Stone
Philosopher's Stone (plural Philosopher's Stones)
- Alternative letter-case form of philosopher's stone.
philosopher's stone meaning in Hindi, Gujarati, Sanskrit and Tagalog
philosopher's stone in Hindi
- supposed substance able to turn base metals into gold or silver
- पारस पत्थर pāras patthar, स्पर्शोपल sparśopal, स्पर्शमणि sparśamṇi, परश paraś, परसपखान parsapkhān, रसेंद्र rasendra
philosopher's stone in Gujarati
- supposed substance able to turn base metals into gold or silver
- પારસમણિ pārsamṇi
philosopher's stone in Sanskrit
- supposed substance able to turn base metals into gold or silver
- स्पर्शमणि sparśamaṇi, स्पर्शोपल sparśopala, परश paraśa
philosopher's stone in Tagalog
- supposed substance able to turn base metals into gold or silver
- bato ng pilosopo
More languagesFewer languages
- philosopher's stone in Arabic
- حَجَر اَلْفَلَاسِفَة ḥajar al-falāsifa
- philosopher's stone in Malay
- batu hikmat
- philosopher's stone in Indonesian
- batu bertuah
- philosopher's stone in Persian
- سنگ جادو sang-e jâdu, سنگ فلاسفه sang-e falâsefe
- philosopher's stone in Thai
- ศิลาอาถรรพ์ sìlaa àatan, ศิลานักปราชญ์
- philosopher's stone in Vietnamese
- hòn đá phù thủy, đá tạo vàng
Synonyms of philosopher's stone
Forms of philosopher's stone
| plural | philosopher's stones |
|---|---|
| alternative form | philosophers stone |
| alternative form | Philosopher's Stone |
| alternative form | philosophers' stone |
| alternative form | stone of the philosophers |
| plural | Philosopher's Stones |
Origin of philosopher's stone
A misconstruction of philosophers' stone, from Middle English philosophres ston, a calque of Latin lapis philosophōrum.
Questions about philosopher's stone
- What does philosopher's stone mean?
- Philosopher's stone means a supposed substance able to turn base metals, such as lead or mercury, into gold or silver, also sometimes claimed to cure any illness (as panacea) or confer immortality (as elixir of life), among other functions.
- What is philosopher's stone in Hindi?
- Philosopher's stone in Hindi is पारस पत्थर (pāras patthar), स्पर्शोपल (sparśopal), स्पर्शमणि (sparśamṇi). See Philosopher's stone meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is philosopher's stone?
- Philosopher's stone is a noun.
- What is the plural of philosopher's stone?
- The plural of philosopher's stone is philosopher's stones.
Words near philosopher's stone in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: philosopher's stone (page history and authors); Philosopher's Stone (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-philosopher's stone.wav.
Cite this entry: “philosopher's stone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/philosopher%27s_stone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.