chimerical

[ ki-mer-i-kuhl, -meer-, kahy- ]
See synonyms for chimerical on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. unreal; imaginary; visionary:a chimerical terrestrial paradise.

  2. wildly fanciful; highly unrealistic: a chimerical plan.

Origin of chimerical

1
First recorded in 1630–40; chimer(a) + -ical
  • Also chi·mer·ic [ki-mer-ik, -meer-, kahy-] /kɪˈmɛr ɪk, -ˈmɪər-, kaɪ-/ .

Other words for chimerical

Opposites for chimerical

Other words from chimerical

  • chi·mer·i·cal·ly, adverb
  • non·chi·mer·ic, adjective
  • non·chi·mer·i·cal, adjective
  • non·chi·mer·i·cal·ly, adverb

Words Nearby chimerical

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use chimerical in a sentence

  • What is called magic is not a vain and chimerical art, as the Stoics and Epicureans pretend.

    A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 1 (of 10) | Franois-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire)
  • There is, at least, no country in Europe in which servility has not invented and vanity received genealogies yet more chimerical.

    A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 1 (of 10) | Franois-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire)
  • The idea originally entertained of turning part of the Vailima estate into a profitable plantation turned out chimerical.

  • I would not barter one hour of such thoughts—chimerical though they may be—for ten years of this vapid, surface life.

    Alone | Marion Harland
  • A false religion must necessarily bestow upon those who practise it only a false, chimerical, and transient utility.

    Letters To Eugenia | Paul Henri Thiry Holbach

British Dictionary definitions for chimerical

chimerical

chimeric (kaɪˈmɛrɪk)

/ (kaɪˈmɛrɪkəl, kɪ-) /


adjective
  1. wildly fanciful; imaginary

  2. given to or indulging in fantasies

Derived forms of chimerical

  • chimerically, adverb
  • chimericalness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012