• Today's Word

Chimerical

🔊 Listen to the word Chimerical

ky-MAIR-ih-kul

Definition

(adjective) Wildly unrealistic or fanciful; existing only in the imagination and having no basis in reality.

Example

Critics called the startup’s plan to colonize Mars within five years chimerical — bold in vision, impossible in practice.

Word Origin

From the Chimera — a fire-breathing monster of Greek mythology with the head of a lion, body of a goat, and tail of a serpent. From Greek chimaira (“she-goat”), related to kheimon (“winter”) — the creature was associated with seasonal storms. The Chimera was slain by Bellerophon riding Pegasus, and its name became a byword for any fantastical, impossible idea. The adjective chimerical entered English in the 17th century.

Fun Fact

In modern biology, a “chimera” is an organism containing cells from two genetically distinct sources — either naturally (some twins absorb cells from each other in the womb) or through procedures like bone marrow transplants. Human chimeras walk among us, often completely unaware of their dual genetic identity. The mythological monster’s mismatched body parts turned out to be a surprisingly accurate metaphor for a real biological phenomenon — proof that even “impossible” things sometimes turn out to be more real than imagined.