CHIMERICAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does chimerical mean? 

• CHIMERICAL (adjective)
  The adjective CHIMERICAL has 2 senses:

1. being or relating to or like a chimera

2. produced by a wildly fanciful imagination

  Familiarity information: CHIMERICAL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHIMERICAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Being or relating to or like a chimera

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

chimeral; chimeric; chimerical

Context example:

his Utopia is not as chimeric commonwealth but a practical improvement on what already exists

Pertainym:

Chimera ((Greek mythology) fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head and a goat's body and a serpent's tail; daughter of Typhon)

Derivation:

Chimera ((Greek mythology) fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head and a goat's body and a serpent's tail; daughter of Typhon)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Produced by a wildly fanciful imagination

Context example:

his Utopia is not a chimerical commonwealth but a practical improvement on what already exists

Similar:

unrealistic (not realistic)

Derivation:

chimera (a grotesque product of the imagination)

 Context examples 

If, instead of this remark, my father had taken the pains to explain to me that the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded and that a modern system of science had been introduced which possessed much greater powers than the ancient, because the powers of the latter were chimerical, while those of the former were real and practical, under such circumstances I should certainly have thrown Agrippa aside and have contented my imagination, warmed as it was, by returning with greater ardour to my former studies.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)