chimera

noun

kī-ˈmir-ə How to pronounce chimera (audio)
Definition of chimeranext
as in illusion
a conception or image created by the imagination and having no objective reality a monster in the closet would not have been the first chimera that the boy had seen in his mind's eye

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of chimera Rather than a somewhat normal for Hollywood bakeoff, Paramount plans to kind of smush the two scripts together into one IP chimera. — Bethy Squires, Vulture, 27 Feb. 2026 Look behind that curtain and see that the great and powerful Oz is a chimera. — Laura Washington, Chicago Tribune, 14 Jan. 2026 The Animal Legal Defense Fund, an animal advocacy organization, argued that if such chimeras gained humanlike awareness, they should be treated as human research subjects. — Monika Piotrowska, The Conversation, 8 Dec. 2025 The chimera of a two-state solution still has widespread backing within Washington’s traditional foreign policy establishment. — Ray Takeyh, Foreign Affairs, 4 Dec. 2025 See All Example Sentences for chimera
Recent Examples of Synonyms for chimera
  1. illusion
  2. dream
  3. fantasy
  4. daydream
  5. vision
Noun
  • The war has exacted a toll on their economies and shattered illusions about their security.
    — Ishaan Tharoor, New Yorker, 5 Nov. 2026
  • And that created this brand, maybe an illusion for him, of radical transparency.
    — Savannah Walsh, Vanity Fair, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of illusion
Noun
  • California dreams and nightmares The Cheesecake Factory is a punchline.
    — Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 1 Nov. 2026
  • On the floor beside him, the dog was feebly pursuing some quarry in a dream.
    — Téa Obreht, New Yorker, 1 Nov. 2026
Definition of dream
Noun
  • The series pairs its lavish costumes and sets with visual effects to build its fantasy world, including Queen, a mysterious bird with whom Navier forms a bond.
    — Ophélie Surcouf, Variety, 3 Nov. 2026
  • The Cowboys are getting diced by QB2s, quarterbacks who played in college at Kansas, and gashed by running backs that don’t even get picked in fantasy leagues that last 20 rounds.
    — Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of fantasy
Noun
  • This helps warm up the imagination; daydreams, nightmares are easy ways in.
    — Emily Temple, Literary Hub, 20 Oct. 2026
  • The songs on Purdy also have the tone of journal entries, detailing haggard trips to the grocery store, daydreams about his young daughters’ glamorous adult lives, and observations about the banality of oppression.
    — Dash Lewis, Pitchfork, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of daydream
Noun
  • The system builds on an earlier robot memory framework called DAAAM, which uses a vision-language model (VLM) to generate detailed descriptions of objects captured by a robot’s onboard cameras.
    — Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 6 Nov. 2026
  • Now, with America having vociferously rejected Musk’s vision of governance, those wishing to drive something that reminds everyone around them of that vision will only have a few months more to purchase one.
    — Jonathan M. Gitlin, ArsTechnica, 6 Nov. 2026
Definition of vision

Browse Nearby Words

chime in
chimera
chimeras
See all Nearby Words

Podcast

Cite this Entry

“Chimera.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/chimera. Accessed 8 Nov. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on chimera

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about chimera

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of cockamamie

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Old-Timey Vehicles

The Words of the Week - Nov. 6

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
woman sitting on floor holding book in front of her face on pink background
Famous Novels, Last Lines Quiz Needless to say, spoiler alert.
See All