lodestone

American  

[lohd-stohn] / ˈloʊdˌstoʊn /

Or loadstone

noun

1. a variety of magnetite that possesses magnetic polarity and attracts iron.

2. a piece of this serving as a magnet.

3. something that attracts strongly.

---

lodestone British  

/ ˈləʊdˌstəʊn /

noun

1. 1. a rock that consists of pure or nearly pure magnetite and thus is naturally magnetic

   2. a piece of such rock, which can be used as a magnet and which was formerly used as a primitive compass

2. a person or thing regarded as a focus of attraction

---

lodestone Scientific  

/ lōd′stōn′ /

1. A piece of the mineral magnetite that acts like a magnet.

---

Etymology

Origin of lodestone

1505–15; lode (in obsolete sense “way, course”) + stone

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lodestone

Not everyone will agree that establishing this new moral compact should be our party’s lodestone.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 20, 2025

Putting R-Star into practice as a lodestone for policy has never been easy.

From Reuters ● May 2, 2023

But in the mid-1980s, a band of booksellers moved into the empty barns and transformed the place into a literary lodestone.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 26, 2021

The lodestone attracted an Australian company backed by Chinese investors that had hoped to blast an open-pit mine — until it ran into Ms. Paviasen.

From New York Times ● Oct. 1, 2021

He had a Gallivespian lodestone operator aboard his gyropter, and through him he was able to learn as quickly as Lord Asriel himself about what was going on elsewhere.

From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman