Skip to content
HOW TO PRONOUNCE

alchemy

/ˈælkəmi/

Press play to hear how to pronounce alchemy.

American Pronunciation Guide · 0:39
Watch on YouTube ↗
LISTEN FOR THIS

AL-kuh-mee: ch sounds like k.

The first syllable has the short a of “cat” and takes the main stress. Keep the middle vowel light and finish with an unstressed ee.

TRY SAYING
The exhibition traced the relationship between alchemy and early chemistry.

APG practice sentence · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

What does alchemy mean?

noun

  1. The premodern and early modern study of physical changes, particularly in Europe, Arabia, and China; and chiefly in pursuit of an elixir of immortality, a universal panacea, and/or a philosopher's stone able to transmute base metals into gold, eventually developing into chemistry.
  2. The causing of any sort of mysterious sudden transmutation.
  3. (slang) Any elaborate transformation process or algorithm.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ˈælkəmi/

Pronunciation used in the listening tip.

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

And that which would appear offence in us, His countenance, like richest alchemy, Will change to virtue and to worthiness.
William ShakespeareThe Complete Works of William ShakespeareProject Gutenberg ebook #100
Even moisture and decaying vegetable matter could not, with all nature’s alchemy, concoct enough soil to nourish a few poor grasses.
Robert Louis StevensonThe Silverado SquattersProject Gutenberg ebook #516
More book examples (3)
But when we cast them all into the treasury of right service, there is an alchemy that transmutes every gift into gold.
Ralph Albert ParletteThe University of Hard KnocksProject Gutenberg ebook #455
With her odd good looks she very likely had just that subacid leaven for which, in the alchemy of attraction, the Duc was in search.
Victor MacClureShe Stands AccusedProject Gutenberg ebook #488
And as this proved in astrology that there could be only seven planets, so it proved in alchemy that there must be exactly seven metals.
Andrew Dickson WhiteHistory of the Warfare of Science with Theology in ChristendomProject Gutenberg ebook #505