philosopher's stone
noun
Forms philosopher's stones philosophers stone philosophers' stone stone of the philosophers
- noun (alchemy) 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 A piece of such a substance.
Synonyms
philosopher's egg sorcerer's stone philosophers' stone elixir
Etymology
A misconstruction of philosophers' stone, from Middle English philosophres ston, a calque of Latin lapis philosophōrum.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “philosopher's stone”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details