panacea
noun
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.
Examples of panacea in a Sentence
Drew Pittock,
USA Today,
29 June 2026
More bureaucracy — in the form of the new stand-alone Department of Gun Violence Reduction — while well-intentioned, isn’t the panacea to what plagues our city, especially as whoever is appointed head of this new department will enjoy too much independence from the mayor.
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The Editorial Board,
Chicago Tribune,
26 June 2026
Cons to Using Orange Peels While often touted as a panacea around the garden, orange peels have some downsides.
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Lee Wallender,
The Spruce,
22 June 2026
At the same time, the research team was clear that its findings are not a panacea — being diagnosed with a specific illness is often only an early step toward finding and then pursuing treatment options — and that LLMs are not meant to be used by consumers to treat or diagnose diseases.
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Jared Perlo,
NBC news,
18 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for panacea
Cite this Entry
“Panacea.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/panacea. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.
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panacea
noun
