n.
Pronunciation: ə - ' lem-bik
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French & Medieval Latin; Middle French alambic & Medieval Latin alembicum, from Arabic al-anb ī q, from al the + anb ī q still, from Late Greek ambik-, ambix alembic, from Greek, capitalized of a still
Date: 14th century
1 : an apparatus used in distillation
2 : something that refines or transmutes as if by distillation <philosophy ⋯ filtered through the alembic of Plato's mind ― B. T. Shropshire>
alembic