Plural of alembic; multiple pear-shaped distillation vessels used in alchemy, chemistry, and perfume-making.
From Arabic 'al-anbiq' (the distilling apparatus), passed through medieval Latin and Greek, ultimately becoming 'alembic' in English, then pluralized with -s.
Medieval alchemists lined their laboratories with dozens of alembics—each one was essential for their obsessive quest to transmute lead into gold, even though it never worked!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.