adjective
-
wildly fanciful; imaginary
-
given to or indulging in fantasies
Other Word Forms
- chimerically adverb
- chimericalness noun
- nonchimeric adjective
- nonchimerical adjective
- nonchimerically adverb
Etymology
Origin of chimerical
Explanation
Use the adjective chimerical to describe something that is wildly fanciful or imaginative — like the chimerical illustrations of magical creatures in a children's book. A chimera was a fire-breathing monster from Greek mythology made from three different animals: a lion at its head, a goat in the middle, and a serpent at the end. The first surviving mention of the beast is in Homer's The Iliad. From this fantastical creature, English created the adjective chimerical to describe wild figments of the imagination.
Vocabulary lists containing chimerical
Frankenstein
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100 SAT words Beginning with "C"
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"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 7
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Projections of economic gains from major sporting events are typically optimistic, euphoric, chimerical or conjectural.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 19, 2025
Amid the piece’s slippery, chimerical atmosphere, a solo clarinet, played by Jon Manasse, emerged with sweetly mellow innocence, like a child’s voice in an urban variation of Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915.”
From New York Times • Aug. 7, 2023
Claims made for the abilities or perils of AI chatbots have often turned out to be mistaken or chimerical.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 13, 2023
The chimerical enemy is firmly within humanity, not as an abstraction of human nature but in real human form.
From New York Times • Feb. 16, 2023
The rather chimerical notion of a nuclear bomb without radioactive side effects had emerged in late 1954 and had been embraced by Livermore, where it fit nicely with the lab’s brief to explore new ideas.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
