Library / English Dictionary

CHIMERA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A grotesque product of the imagination

Synonyms:

chimaera; chimera

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("chimera" is a kind of...):

imagery; imagination; imaging; mental imagery (the ability to form mental images of things or events)

Derivation:

chimeral; chimeric (being or relating to or like a chimera)

chimerical (produced by a wildly fanciful imagination)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(Greek mythology) fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head and a goat's body and a serpent's tail; daughter of Typhon

Synonyms:

Chimaera; Chimera

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("Chimera" is a kind of...):

mythical creature; mythical monster (a monster renowned in folklore and myth)

Domain category:

Greek mythology (the mythology of the ancient Greeks)

Derivation:

chimeral; chimerical (being or relating to or like a chimera)

Credits

 Context examples: 

"To you, then, my goal is as much a chimera as perpetual motion?" he demanded.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted and that the elixir of life is a chimera but these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)