lodestone

or load·stone

[lohd-stohn]

noun

a variety of magnetite that possesses magnetic polarity and attracts iron.
a piece of this serving as a magnet.
something that attracts strongly.

Origin of lodestone

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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for lodestone

Contemporary Examples of lodestone

Beale Street drew them, it has been said, “like a lodestone.”
Stanley Booth on the Life and Hard Times of Blues Genius Furry Lewis
Stanley Booth
June 7, 2014
It was my lodestone, my centering point, my story as a journalist covering Germany and the East Bloc.
Scaling the Berlin Wall
Michael R. Meyer
October 31, 2009

Historical Examples of lodestone

These properties of amber and lodestone appear to have been widely known.
Heroes of the Telegraph
J. Munro
It was the lodestone which had served to draw this woman once more into the danger zone.
Pathfinder
Alan Douglas
His glance went to the portrait, and his feet followed, as to a lodestone.
Coniston, Complete
Winston Churchill
That thought became his lodestone, and he left all his other work to accomplish it.
Historic Inventions
Rupert S. Holland
How early the compass, or lodestone, was known in the North is uncertain.
In Northern Mists (Volume 2 of 2)
Fridtjof Nansen

British Dictionary definitions for lodestone

lodestone

loadstone

noun

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
a person or thing regarded as a focus of attraction

Word Origin for lodestone

C16: literally: guiding stone

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for lodestone

"magnetically polarized oxide of iron," 1510s, literally "way-stone," from lode + stone (n.). So called because it was used to make compass magnets to guide mariners. Figurative use from 1570s.

lodestone in Science

lodestone

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