lodestone
/ˈləʊdstəʊn
/(also loadstone)
noun
1A piece of magnetite or other naturally magnetized mineral, able to be used as a magnet.Electromagnetic fields and radiation have, perhaps through their historical associations with magnetic lodestones and electrical storms, been linked to forces of nature that are not readily understood....
- Gilbert carried out many other experiments, including the study of spherical lodestones that were floated on water in small wooden boats.
1.1 [mass noun] A naturally magnetized mineral; magnetite.Geomagnetic measurements owe their beginning to an uncommon rock: lodestone....
- For example, there is an interesting rock called lodestone.
- Why did lodestone have the power to attract certain metals?
1.2A person or thing that is the focus of attention or attraction: the revolution in eastern Europe has robbed the state of its ideological lodestone...
- It is the ideological lodestone of a political movement that has shoved the entire American political center to the right.
- Santa Fe has been a lodestone for the study, idealization, and romanticization of the American Indian since the completion of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway.
- Attendance at the Army War College (as well as the other senior service colleges) should remain the lodestone of the profession of arms.