Moxa
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A woolly material obtained from the dried leaves of an Asian species of mugwort, such as Artemisia argyi, as used in moxibustion. countable, uncountable
"And thereupon she burned with her Moxa (of which hereafter) on my feet and knees, (to my best remembrance) about twenty little Escars, which looked like lit∣tle gray specks, without raising any blisters, or causing any after-pain; whereupon also all the pain of the Gout vanish’d."
- 2 Any other substance used in moxibustion. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"And thereupon she burned with her Moxa (of which hereafter) on my feet and knees, (to my best remembrance) about twenty little Escars, which looked like lit∣tle gray specks, without raising any blisters, or causing any after-pain; whereupon also all the pain of the Gout vanish’d."
Etymology
From Japanese 艾 (mogusa, “mugwort”). The u is not strongly pronounced in Japanese, leading to its disappearance and the devoicing of the plosive. First used by Hermann Buschoff, a Dutch minister in Batavia, who wrote the first book about this remedy in 1674.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.