nostrum
Americannoun
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a medicine sold with false or exaggerated claims and with no demonstrable value; quack medicine.
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a pet scheme or remedy, especially for social or political ills; panacea.
The party was pushing the nostrum of corporate tax reduction, as if that would undo decades of industrial job loss.
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a medicine made by the person who recommends it.
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a patent medicine.
noun
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a patent or quack medicine
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a favourite remedy, as for political or social problems
Etymology
Origin of nostrum
First recorded in 1595–1605; from Latin: literally, “our, ours” (neuter singular of noster ), with a noun such as remedium “remedy, cure” being understood; referring to the seller's calling the drug “our” drug
Explanation
Though you try many medicines that claim to cure your cold, none of them work. They turn out to be nostrums, or ineffective drugs. Nostrum refers to a cure-all, a drug, or a medicine that is ineffectual. Before drugs were regulated by the government, there were many nostrums sold to the public. “Snake oil” is one of the most well-known. Said to cure any ailment from achy joints to hair loss, snake oil concoctions could contain a number of ingredients — including camphor, red pepper, and turpentine.
Vocabulary lists containing nostrum
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "N"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The commissioners overstated the case, but consolidation took hold as a popular nostrum, and Bush gave in, signing Lieberman’s bill into law.
From Slate • Jan. 15, 2026
He has taken Emerson’s nostrum about consistency being “the hobgoblin of little minds” to its acid-flashback extreme: no consistency, no mind to speak of, but one hell of a hobgoblin.
From Salon • Feb. 9, 2025
President Joko Widodo envisions the construction of a new capital as a nostrum for the problems plaguing Jakarta, reducing its population while allowing the country to start fresh with a “sustainable city.”
From Seattle Times • Mar. 8, 2023
Musk himself has been a purveyor of damaging misinformation and disinformation on Twitter — promoting the useless anti-COVID nostrum hydroxychloroquine as well as economically dubious cryptocurrencies, for example.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 28, 2022
Superstition was a widely available nostrum for people powerless against the miseries of famine, pestilence and deadly doctrinal conflict.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
