Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various deep-sea cartilaginous fishes of the order Chimaeriformes, having a large head and tapered body with a whiplike tail.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as chimere.
  • noun A less usual spelling of chimera.
  • noun In zoology: A genus of fishes of strange aspect, representing the family
  • noun A genus of bivalve mollusks.
  • noun A genus of lepidopterous insects
  • noun A genus of fossil organisms of uncertain character.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) A cartilaginous fish of several species, belonging to the order Chimaeriformes of the class Holocephali. The teeth are few and large. The head is furnished with appendages, and the tail terminates in a point.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative spelling of chimera.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (Greek mythology) fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head and a goat's body and a serpent's tail; daughter of Typhon
  • noun a grotesque product of the imagination
  • noun a deep-sea fish with a tapering body, smooth skin, and long threadlike tail

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin Chimaera, type genus, from Latin chimaera, chimera; see chimera.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word chimaera.

Examples

  • ˜A man is an animal™, in which the composition involved is a being in the absolute sense, it follows ˜Therefore a man is™, but from ˜A chimaera is a non-being™, in which the composition is a being in a certain sense only, it does not follow

    Peter of Spain Spruyt, Joke 2007

  • In a mere 18 hours they transformed a TVR Chimaera (interesting choice since a chimaera is a mythological creature composed of parts of a number of animals) into the Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust pictured above.

    Autoblog 2009

  • In a mere 18 hours they transformed a TVR Chimaera (interesting choice since a chimaera is a mythological creature composed of parts of a number of animals) into the Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust pictured above.

    Autoblog 2009

  • The dilemma for most eurosceptics who oppose British integration into a EU superstate — that political chimaera which is finally being brought into being by the EU constitutional treaty — has always been the assumption that EU membership is a take-it-or-leave-it deal.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2008

  • The dilemma for most eurosceptics who oppose British integration into a EU superstate — that political chimaera which is finally being brought into being by the EU constitutional treaty — has always been the assumption that EU membership is a take-it-or-leave-it deal.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2008

  • The dilemma for most eurosceptics who oppose British integration into a EU superstate — that political chimaera which is finally being brought into being by the EU constitutional treaty — has always been the assumption that EU membership is a take-it-or-leave-it deal.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2008

  • The dilemma for most eurosceptics who oppose British integration into a EU superstate — that political chimaera which is finally being brought into being by the EU constitutional treaty — has always been the assumption that EU membership is a take-it-or-leave-it deal.

    A warship alters its signal? 2008

  • It has also misled him but too often into depicting a world of suicides, ignoring or overlooking a secret hobby, or passion, or chimaera which is the one thing that renders existence endurable to so many of the waifs and strays of life.

    The House of Cobwebs and Other Stories George Gissing 1880

  • Gilder McCarroll: April chose “chimaera” because the mythical creature, combining traits of a lion, a goat, and a snake or dragon, is frequently used by game designers.

    Made in SA: Chimaeracon | Missions Unknown 2010

  • It is, one might say, a necessary monster, not some ephemeral and casual creature like the chimaera or the catoblepas.

    Archive 2008-12-01 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.