panacea

noun

pan·​a·​cea ˌpa-nə-ˈsē-ə 

: a remedy for all ills or difficulties : cure-all

The law will improve the lives of local farmers, but it is no panacea.

panacean

ˌpa-nə-ˈsē-ən 

adjective

Did you know?

The maxim “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” isn’t true, but belief in a miraculous botanical “cure for whatever ails ya” has existed for millennia and is at the root of the word panacea. In current use, panacea most often refers to a remedy—medical or otherwise—that inevitably falls far short of what some claim or hope it can do, but the word’s Latin and Greek forebears referred to plants with legit healing properties, including mints and yarrows. Both the Latin word panacēa and its Greek antecedent panákeia (from the word panakēs, meaning “all-healing”) were applied especially to flowering herbs (genus Opopanax) of the carrot family used to treat various ailments.

Synonyms

• remedy
• cure
• elixir
• cure-all
• nostrum

Examples of panacea in a Sentence

The law will improve the lives of local farmers, but it is no panacea.

a woman who seems to believe that chicken soup is a panacea for nearly everything

Recent Examples on the Web

As the lamprey crisis worsened, various chemical companies sent compounds to the lab, which was searching for a panacea. —Katie Thornton, New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2025

Amazon delivery contractors quickly learn that bailing is no panacea. —Bloomberg, Mercury News, 20 Oct. 2025

There is no single panacea that will spur more development and investment, but there are a few tools to bring about that vibrant future that are incredibly basic and simple. —Wes Burdine, Twin Cities, 19 Oct. 2025

Back-to-back championships by the Dodgers could embolden MLB and add to a chorus of fans who see a cap as a panacea for the plague of big-money teams monopolizing championships over the past decade. —Shaun McAvoy, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Oct. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin panacēa "universal remedy, cure-all," going back to Latin, "any of various medicinal plants," borrowed from Greek panákeia "name of a medicinal plant, universal remedy, (as a personified abstraction) a goddess of healing," derivative of panakḗs "all-healing," from pan- pan- + -akēs, adjective derivative of ákos (neuter s-stem) "cure, remedy, relief," of uncertain origin

Note: If initial aspiration was lost, and the aspiration was the residue of yod, then ákos might be comparable with Old Irish ícc "payment, compensation, redemption, act of curing, healing" (Modern Irish íoc), Middle Welsh yach "healthy" (Modern Welsh iach), Old Cornish iach (glossing Latin sānus), Old Breton iac (glossing Latin suspite = sospite "safe and sound") (Modern Breton yac'h "healthy"). The phonetic details are problematic, however.

First Known Use

1548, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for panacea

• aliya
• aliyah
• althea
• apnoea
• coffea
• dyspnea
• dyspnoea
• hosea
• idea
• kshatriya
• maria
• medea

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Kids Definition

panacea

noun

pan·​a·​cea ˌpan-ə-ˈsē-ə 

: a remedy for all ills or difficulties : cure-all

Medical Definition

panacea

noun

pan·​a·​cea ˌpan-ə-ˈsē-ə 

: a remedy for all ills or difficulties

panacean

-ˈsē-ən 

adjective