What does the word "lodestone" mean?

The word “lodestone” means “leading stone.”

The term comes from the Middle English word “lode,” meaning a journey, way, or course, so a lodestone was literally a stone that led or guided travelers. That meaning reflects its historic use: lodestones are naturally magnetized pieces of magnetite that attract iron and align themselves roughly north–south when freely suspended.

Long before modern compasses, people used lodestones to discover and demonstrate magnetism. Suspended pieces helped create early magnetic compasses, making the “leading stone” name especially fitting for navigation. The word is sometimes confused with “loadstone,” as though it referred to a stone that carries a load, but the older sense is directional rather than physical.

A lodestone is not simply any piece of magnetite. Most magnetite is magnetic but not permanently magnetized; lodestone is a naturally occurring permanent magnet, probably magnetized by exceptionally strong fields such as those surrounding lightning strikes.