Word.ws English Dictionary

philosopher's wool

Syllables: phil·o·soph·er’s woolUK/fɪˌlɒsəfəz ˈwʊl//fəˌlɑs(ə)fəɹz ˈwʊl/

philosopher's wool noun: zinc oxide (chemical formula ZnO) as a white flocculent powder.

philosopher's wool: zinc oxide (chemical formula ZnO) as a white flocculent powder
Image: w:Walkerma, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

philosopher's wool (uncountable)

  1. (archaic) Zinc oxide (chemical formula ZnO) as a white flocculent powder.

Synonyms of philosopher's wool

Forms of philosopher's wool

alternative formphilosophers' wool

Origin of philosopher's wool

From philosopher (“(obsolete) an alchemist”) + -’s + wool.

Words that rhyme with philosopher's wool

Questions about philosopher's wool

What does philosopher's wool mean?
Philosopher's wool means zinc oxide (chemical formula ZnO) as a white flocculent powder.
What part of speech is philosopher's wool?
Philosopher's wool is a noun.
How do you pronounce philosopher's wool?
Philosopher's wool is pronounced /fɪˌlɒsəfəz ˈwʊl/ (UK).

Words near philosopher's wool in the dictionary

  1. philosopher's game
  2. philosopher's lamp
  3. philosopher's stone
  4. philosopher's stones
  5. philosopher's tree
  6. philosopher's wool
  7. philosopher-king
  8. philosopher-kings
  9. philosopheress
  10. philosopheresses
  11. philosophers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: philosopher's wool (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: En-us-philosopher's wool.oga.

Cite this entry: “philosopher's wool.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/philosopher%27s_wool. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.