chimera
Plural: chimeras
Noun
- A mythical monster; an unreal or impossible dream.
- (Greek mythology) fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head and a goat's body and a serpent's tail; daughter of Typhon
- a grotesque product of the imagination
- Alternative letter-case form of Chimera, a supposed monster in Lycia with the head of a lion, body of a goat, and tail of a dragon or serpent, killed by the hero Bellerophon.
- Any fantastic creature combining parts from different animals.
- A foolish, incongruous, or vain thought or product of the imagination.
- Anything composed of very disparate parts.
- A grotesque like a gargoyle, but without a spout for rainwater.
- An organism with genetically distinct cells originating from two or more zygotes.
- Alternative form of chimaera, a cartilaginous marine fish in the subclass Holocephali and especially the order Chimaeriformes, with a blunt snout, long tail, and a spine before the first dorsal fin.
- Synonym of bogeyman: any terrifying thing, especially as an unreal, imagined threat.
Examples
- He built his car one piece at a time, producing a chimera with the head of a Volkswagen, the body of a Geely, and the tail of an aftermarket Porsche.
- His hope of forming ’QUIXOTIC’ with his current tiles was a pure chimera.
- The DNA test returned a false negative because the killer was a chimera, having absorbed her twin in utero.
- The game includes a bunch of chimeras, with the lion heads shooting fire and the snake tails whipping around trying to bite the player.
Origin / Etymology
Variant of Middle English chimere, chymere, & chymera under renewed Latin influence from the 16th century, from French chimère, from Latin Chimaera, from Ancient Greek Χίμαιρα (Khímaira, “fire-breathing mythological monster, fire-spewing Lycian or Cilician mountain”), from χίμαιρα (khímaira, “she-goat”, from χίμαρος (khímaros, “male goat”) + -α (-a)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰey-. In reference to the fish, directly from Latin Chimaera, used by Linnaeus. In reference to organisms with distinct areas of different genetic makeups, a calque of German Chimäre, used by Hans Winkler in 1907.
Synonyms
chimaera, Chimaera, bogeyman, ghost shark, motley crew, rabbitfish, ratfish
Antonyms
Scrabble Score: 14
chimera: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordchimera: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
chimera: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary