ALCHEMY

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does alchemy mean? 

• ALCHEMY (noun)
  The noun ALCHEMY has 2 senses:

1. the way two individuals relate to each other

2. a pseudoscientific forerunner of chemistry in medieval times

  Familiarity information: ALCHEMY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ALCHEMY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The way two individuals relate to each other

Classified under:

Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas

Synonyms:

alchemy; chemistry; interpersonal chemistry

Context example:

a mysterious alchemy brought them together

Hypernyms ("alchemy" is a kind of...):

social relation (a relation between living organisms (especially between people))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A pseudoscientific forerunner of chemistry in medieval times

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("alchemy" is a kind of...):

pseudoscience (an activity resembling science but based on fallacious assumptions)

Domain member category:

athanor (a furnace that feeds itself so as to maintain a uniform temperature; used by alchemists)

Derivation:

alchemic; alchemical (related to or concerned with alchemy)

alchemist (one who was versed in the practice of alchemy and who sought an elixir of life and a panacea and an alkahest and the philosopher's stone)

alchemize (alter (elements) by alchemy)

 Context examples 

He did not dream how ardent and masculine his gaze was, nor that the warm flame of it was affecting the alchemy of her spirit.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Sometimes he was all but submerged, swimming through oblivion with a faltering stroke; and again, by some strange alchemy of soul, he would find another shred of will and strike out more strongly.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

In the alchemy of his brain, trigonometry and mathematics and the whole field of knowledge which they betokened were transmuted into so much landscape.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)