Word.ws English Dictionary

philosophers' stone

philosophers' stone is the alternative form of philosopher's stone.

Meaning of philosopher's stone

Noun

philosopher's stone (plural philosopher's stones)

  1. 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
  2. A piece of such a substance.

Forms of philosophers' stone

pluralphilosophers' stones

Origin of philosophers' stone

From Middle English philosophres ston, a calque of Latin lapis philosophōrum.

Questions about philosophers' stone

What is philosophers' stone the alternative form of?
Philosophers' stone is the alternative form of philosopher's stone.

Words near philosophers' stone in the dictionary

  1. philosophers
  2. philosophers by fire
  3. philosophers of fire
  4. philosophers stone
  5. philosophers stones
  6. philosophers' stone
  7. philosophers' stones
  8. philosophers' wool
  9. philosophership
  10. philosophes
  11. philosophess

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: philosophers' 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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