chimerical
- adjective
- /kaɪˈmɛrɪkəl/
- Literature
- The notion that we could eliminate all diseases sounds chimerical, yet scientists continue to strive for it.
But we don't have to pursue this chimerical pursuit, this elusive quest to stand up to the West and be in the first ranks of powers.
- But we don't have to pursue this chimerical pursuit, this elusive quest to stand up to the West and be in the first ranks of powers.
Examples
-
Many people believe that a perfect society is a chimerical dream that can never be achieved.
-
Where there is no virtue, the free society perishes and the very idea of liberty becomes chimerical.
Academic text (2001) -
I also know that some of my concerns about wielding too much power were chimerical.
Academic text (1999) -
In a disorganized society, these individual gods or principles are likely to be chimerical and fantastic.
Fiction book (2002) -
Without God, we have only our mortality and no chimerical hope of a life that extends beyond our corporeal years.
Academic text (2007) -
Anyone who has participated in chimerical U.S.- or U.N.-sponsored good governance initiatives would understand why: most of these programs simply don't work.
Academic text (1998) -
And the academics' assumption that these beneficiaries of economic reform would support the authoritarian regimes proved chimerical.
Academic text (2011) -
The remaining task of the Groundwork in section 3 is thus to show that Kant's account of morality is neither a "chimerical idea" nor a "phantom."
Academic text (2017) -
There stood the glamour-struck Prince, perplexed, clutching the abandoned shoe, staring after his chimerical beauty who had fled without a single civil goodbye.
Fiction book (1997) -
Miriam joins the world of art, uniting with the spirit of the dead Raphael, but this world, too, is only another chimerical refuge from the realities of prejudice animated by competing fears and desires.
Academic text (2012)
Synonyms
Not having a sensible idea of what can be done in real life
Not sensible or likely to work in real life
Not real, like something from a dream
Not likely to be true or hard to believe
Made of parts from different animals or sources, often strange and imaginary
Impossible to do or make real
Something that is strange and unreal, often like a mix of animals
Not sensible or likely to happen
Antonyms
How Imaginary
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word chimerical comes from the name of the mythical beast Chimera, a creature made from parts of different animals, so it suggests something 'imagined' and not real. That's why chimerical describes ideas or plans that are very unlikely to happen.