chimera

Meaning

Noun

• Alternate spelling of Chimera (a flame-spewing monster often represented as having two heads, one of a goat and the other of a lion; the body of a goat; and a serpent as a tail).
• Any fantastic creature with parts from different animals.
• Anything composed of very disparate parts.
• A foolish, incongruous, or vain thought or product of the imagination.
• A grotesque like a gargoyle, but without a spout for rainwater.
• An organism with genetically distinct cells originating from two or more zygotes.
• Usually chimaera: a cartilaginous marine fish in the subclass Holocephali and especially the order Chimaeriformes, with a blunt snout, long tail, and a spine before the first dorsal fin.

Related

Similar words

• ghost shark, rabbitfish, ratfish
• motley crew

Opposite words

• monolith

Origin

• From Middle English chimere, from French chimère, from Latin chimaera, from Ancient Greek χίμαιρα ("chimera; female goat"), from χίμαρος, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰey-. The Latin form has become more common from the 16th century.