chimerical

American  

[ki-mer-i-kuhl, -meer-, kahy-] / kɪˈmɛr ɪ kəl, -ˈmɪər-, kaɪ- /

Also chimeric

adjective

1. unreal; imaginary; visionary.

   a chimerical terrestrial paradise.

   Synonyms:

   fantastic, illusory

   Antonyms:

   real

2. wildly fanciful; highly unrealistic.

   a chimerical plan.

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chimerical British  

/ kɪ-, kaɪˈmɛrɪkəl, kaɪˈmɛrɪk /

adjective

1. wildly fanciful; imaginary

2. given to or indulging in fantasies

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Other Word Forms

• chimerically adverb
• chimericalness noun
• nonchimeric adjective
• nonchimerical adjective
• nonchimerically adverb

Etymology

Origin of chimerical

First recorded in 1630–40; chimer(a) + -ical

Example Sentences

Since then it has become clear that general-purpose robots that look and act like humans are chimerical.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 6, 2026

Projections of economic gains from major sporting events are typically optimistic, euphoric, chimerical or conjectural.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 19, 2025

Ms. Mori’s creations look like chimerical species — hybrids of barnacles and cumulus clouds, a baobab and a weeping willow, a waterlily and fiddlehead ferns, sea urchin spines and a swarm of starlings.

From New York Times • Mar. 2, 2023

In his eyes, though, speed is not where true value lies in a social media world, and particularly in that portion of it devoted to soccer’s chaotic, contradictory and often chimerical transfer market.

From New York Times • Jan. 24, 2022

However many dreams she had navigated, whatever chimerical fancies she had witnessed, she had never interacted.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor