alchemy
/ˈælkəmi/noun
alchemy is spelled A-L-C-H-E-M-Y: 7 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 1.6 times per million words in written English, the 22,073rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, alchemy means “The premodern and early modern study of physical changes, particularly in Europe, Arabia, and China; and chiefly in pursuit of an elixir of…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of alchemy is alchemies.
How many letters and syllables are in alchemy?
| Letters | 7: A-L-C-H-E-M-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.6 times per million words; the 22,073rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is alchemy?
Alchemy appears 1.6 times per million words in written English, the 22,073rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce alchemy?
- US /ˈælkəmi/
Alchemy has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-alchemy.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of alchemy
- alchemies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does alchemy mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
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.
The purpose of physical alchemy–as opposed to its various spiritual pursuits–was to treat the supposed leprosity of base metals such as lead, refining and purifying them into gold.
- 2
The causing of any sort of mysterious sudden transmutation.
- 3
slangAny elaborate transformation process or algorithm.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Alchemy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense ancient chemistry:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.