chimera

noun

chi·​me·​ra kī-ˈmir-ə 

kə-

1

a

capitalized : a fire-breathing she-monster in Greek mythology having a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail

b

: an imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts

2

: an illusion or fabrication of the mind

especially : an unrealizable dream

a fancy, a chimera in my brain, troubles me in my prayer

—John Donne

His utopia was a chimera.

3

: an individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution

A hybrid created through fusion of a sperm and an egg from different species is a chimera.

Did you know?

“In head and shoulders, she was like a lion, / in back and tail, a snake, and in the middle, / a she-goat, and she breathed a dreadful blast / of blazing fire.” So did Homer describe the fearsome Chimera in The Iliad (as translated by scholar Emily Wilson in 2023). The Chimera terrorized the people of Lycia until slain by the hero Bellerophon, but the beast lived on in people’s imaginations, and English speakers adopted her name for any monster similarly composed of the parts of different animals. Later, chimera took on another meaning that is common in today’s lexicon: “an illusion of the mind, especially an unrealized dream.” This sense of chimera is often used to refer to a fantasy or delusion.

Synonyms

• illusion
• dream
• fantasy
• daydream
• vision
• delusion

Examples of chimera in a Sentence

Economic stability in that country is a chimera.

a monster in the closet would not have been the first chimera that the boy had seen in his mind's eye

Recent Examples on the Web

The standard choices presented to us—reason versus superstition, progress versus barbarism, past versus future, space versus Earth, growth versus stasis—were always chimeras. —Paul Kingsnorth, Harpers Magazine, 19 Sep. 2025

The chimera appear to float toward a star, as if drawn into -- or perhaps emerging from -- another plane of existence. —Natasha Gural, Forbes.com, 1 Aug. 2025

Money savvy players might choose to horde their wealth and splurge on a powerful gun for the final boss round, in which the team must work together to bring down the likes of beastly chimeras that dig underground and towering mutants who perform whirlwind moves. —Griff Griffin, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 July 2025

Chasing this chimera occupied Coronado until the early part of 1542. —Michael Barnes, Austin American Statesman, 2 July 2025

Word History

Etymology

Latin chimaera, from Greek chimaira she-goat, chimera; akin to Old Norse gymbr yearling ewe, Greek cheimōn winter — more at hibernate

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for chimera

• aspera
• barbera
• barrera
• caldera
• cascara
• chimaera
• cordillera
• diptera
• drosera
• mascara
• patera
• provera

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Kids Definition

chimera

noun

chi·​me·​ra kī-ˈmir-ə 

kə-

: something made up by or existing only in the mind

chimerical

-ˈmer-i-kəl

-ˈmir-

adjective

Medical Definition

chimera

noun

chi·​me·​ra

variants or chiefly British chimaera

kī-ˈmir-ə, kə- 

: an individual, organ, or part containing tissue with two or more genetically distinct populations of cells