— alchemic /al kem"ik/ , alchemical, alchemistic /al'keuh mis"tik/ , alchemistical , adj. — alchemically , adv.
/al"keuh mee/ , n. , pl. alchemies for 2.
1. a form of chemistry and speculative philosophy practiced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and concerned principally with discovering methods for transmuting baser metals into gold and with finding a universal solvent and an elixir of life.
2. any magical power or process of transmuting a common substance, usually of little value, into a substance of great value.
[ 1325-1375; earlier alchimie alquemie alchymia al the + kimiya' kemeía transmutation; r. ME alconomye, equiv. to alk ( imie ) + ( astr ) onomye ASTRONOMY ]