Definition

1. Noun:
   • A deep-sea cartilaginous fish: A type of fish, also known as a ghost shark, found in deep ocean waters, characterized by a tapered body, smooth skin, and a long, thread-like tail.
   • A fanciful or impossible creation of the imagination: Something hoped for or imagined that is impossible to achieve or not real; a fantastic, often grotesque, idea or figment.
   • (Greek Mythology) A fire-breathing monster: A female monster, daughter of Typhon, composed of parts of different animals, typically with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail.

Usage Examples

• Noun (Fish):

  • The remotely operated vehicle captured footage of a chimaera gliding through the abyssal zone.
  • Chimaeras are distant relatives of sharks and rays.

• Noun (Imaginary creation):

  • His plan for a perpetual motion machine was dismissed as a mere chimaera.
  • The promised utopia was a political chimaera that never materialized.

• Noun (Mythology):

  • Bellerophon was tasked with slaying the monstrous chimaera.
  • In the myth, the chimaera ravaged the countryside until it was defeated.

Advanced Usage

• "To pursue a chimaera": To chase after something that is illusory or unattainable.
  • Investing all his hopes in that scheme was like pursuing a chimaera.

Variants and Related Words

• Chimera (noun): The more common modern spelling for all definitions, especially the mythological and figurative ones.
  • The artist's sculpture was a modern chimera of machine and animal parts.
• Chimeric (adjective): Pertaining to or resembling a chimera; fantastically visionary or improbable.
  • They made a chimeric plan to solve all the world's problems at once.

Synonyms

• Fish: Ghost shark, ratfish.
• Imaginary creation: Illusion, fantasy, pipe dream, figment, hallucination, mirage.
• Monster: Hybrid monster, composite beast.

Notes on Meaning

• The primary distinction in meaning depends on context: scientific (zoology), literary/rhetorical (figurative), or classical (mythology).
• The figurative use derives directly from the mythological creature, emphasizing something unreal, hybrid, or grotesquely imagined.

Noun

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