panacea

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The Word of the Day for September 3 is: 

panacea   \pan-uh-SEE-uh\   noun 
     : a remedy for all ills or difficulties : cure-all

Example sentence:
     Education reform is sometimes viewed as a panacea for all of society's 
problems.

Did you know?
     "Panacea" is from Latin, and the Latin, in turn, is from Greek "panakeia." 
In Greek, "panakes" means "all-healing," combining "pan-" ("all") and "akos," 
which means "remedy." The Latin designation "Panacea" or "Panaces" has been 
awarded more than one plant at one time or other, among them the herb today 
known as _Prunella vulgaris_, whose common name is "self-heal." More often than 
not, the word "panacea" is used when decrying a claim made for a remedy that 
seems too good to be true. Most likely that's what the author is doing in a 
1625 anatomical treatise, describing "a certaine medicine made of saffron, 
quick silver, vermilion, antimonie, and certaine sea shels made up in fashion 
of triangular lozenges," and calling it a panacea.