alchemy. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

alchemy

SYLLABICATION:	al·che·my
PRONUNCIATION:	lk-m
NOUN:	1. A medieval chemical philosophy having as its asserted aims the transmutation of base metals into gold, the discovery of the panacea, and the preparation of the elixir of longevity. 2. A seemingly magical power or process of transmuting: “He wondered by what alchemy it was changed, so that what sickened him one hour, maddened him with hunger the next” (Marjorie K. Rawlings).
ETYMOLOGY:	Middle English alkamie, from Old French alquemie, from Medieval Latin alchymia, from Arabic al-kmiy’ : al-, the + kmiy’, chemistry (from Late Greek khmeia, khumeia, perhaps from Greek Khmia, Egypt).
OTHER FORMS:	al·chemi·cal (l-km-kl) , al·chemic —ADJECTIVE al·chemi·cal·ly —ADVERB


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.