Meaning & use
alchemical
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a nounspecialist
Connected with alchemy, the old practice of trying to turn cheap metals into gold and to find a cure for all illness.
Grammar: Almost always goes before a noun: alchemical texts, an alchemical symbol.
Patterns
- alchemical symbol
- alchemical text
The museum displays an alchemical manuscript full of strange symbols.
Medieval scholars drew alchemical diagrams of furnaces and flasks.
He studied the alchemical writings of the sixteenth century.
adjectivecomparablefigurative
Seeming to change one thing into something far better in a mysterious, almost magical way.
Grammar: Used figuratively for skill or transformation, before a noun or after 'be'.
Patterns
- an alchemical process
- alchemical power
The chef's alchemical talent turned simple beans into a feast.
There is something alchemical about how the band's voices blend.
The editor performed an alchemical change on the rough draft.
Common combinations
- alchemical symbol
- The ring was engraved with an alchemical symbol.
- alchemical process
- Baking bread can feel like an alchemical process.
- alchemical transformation
- The film shows the alchemical transformation of a shy girl into a star.
- alchemical text
- The library keeps a rare alchemical text in a locked case.
- alchemical mixture
- Her songs are an alchemical mixture of folk and jazz.
Synonyms and how they differ
- magical
- Magical is a much broader everyday word for anything wonderful, whereas alchemical points to a mysterious change of one thing into another.
- transformative
- Transformative simply means causing a big change and sounds neutral or businesslike, while alchemical adds a mystical flavor.
- mystical
- Mystical stresses spiritual mystery, not the idea of turning something ordinary into something valuable.
- chemical
- Chemical refers to real science and substances, whereas alchemical refers to the older, partly magical practice.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: alchemical or chemical?
alchemical vs chemical
Chemical relates to modern chemistry and its substances, while alchemical relates to the older practice that mixed early chemistry with magic.
Practice
Which sentence uses alchemical in its figurative sense?
Choose one answer.
Only the third sentence uses alchemical for a magical-seeming improvement of something ordinary. The others refer to the real historical practice of alchemy.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “alchemical”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.