MEANING
A supposed remedy for every illness or every problem of a particular kind.
Use it for
warning against treating one reform as a complete solution; criticizing an unrealistic cure-all claim; acknowledging that a useful intervention has limits; distinguishing a partial remedy from a universal answerCriticizes the claim that one remedy can resolve an entire range of difficulties, without claiming the remedy has no value. Writing functions: Evaluation / Limitation, Qualification / Uncertainty, Criticism.
Words that belong together
- a panacea for social problems
- no panacea
- treat something as a panacea
On the page
Transparency is valuable, but it is no panacea for unequal political influence.
The review questions the tendency to present automation as a panacea for weak management.
Word forms
- Base
- panacea
Usage notes
Countable noun, usually singular: a panacea; plural panaceas. Common construction: a panacea for a problem or class of problems. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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