chimera

See also Chimera

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• chimaera
• chimæra

Etymology

From Ancient Greek χίμαιρα (khímaira). The fabulous monster in Lycia (with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail), supposedly personification of snow or winter, originally "year-old she-goat", from χεῖμα (kheima, “winter season”). Meaning "wild fantasy" first recorded 1587.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA: /kaɪˈmɪəɹə/

Noun

chimera (plural chimeras)

1. (mythology) Chimera, or any fantastic creature with parts from different animals
2. A vain, foolish, or incongruous fancy, or creature of the imagination; as, the chimera of an author
3. (genetics) An organism with genetically distinct cells originating from two zygotes
4. (architecture) A gargoyle
5. (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

Synonyms

• (fish): ghost shark, ratfish, rabbitfish

Derived terms

• chimeral
• chimeric
• chimerism
• tetragametic chimera
• Chimera: the name of one of the ships of Æneas

Translations

mythical monster

• Armenian: քիմերա (hy) (kʿimera)
• Bulgarian: химера (bg) (chimera) f
• Catalan: quimera (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 喀邁拉 (cmn), 喀迈拉 (cmn) (kāmàilā)

• Czech: Chiméra (cs)
• Danish: kimære (da) c
• Esperanto: ĥimero (eo)
• Estonian: kimäär (et)
• Finnish: khimaira (fi)
• French: chimère (fr) f
• German: Chimäre (de) f

• Greek: χίμαιρα (el) (chímaira) f
• Hungarian: Kiméra (hu)
• Italian: chimera (it) f
• Japanese: キメラ (ja) (kimera), キマイラ (ja) (kimaira)
• Korean: 키메라 (ko) (kimera), 키마이라 (ko) (kimaira)
• Macedonian: химера (mk) (himera) f
• Russian: химера (ru) (ximéra) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: химера (sh) f

  Roman: himera (sh) f

• Spanish: quimera (es) f
• Swedish: chimaira (sv) c, chimära (sv) c, kimera (sv) c

gargoyle (fictional winged creature)

• Russian: химера (ru) (ximéra) f

organism with cells from two zygotes

• Catalan: quimera (ca) f
• Czech: chiméra (cs)
• French: chimère (fr) f
• German: Chimäre (de) f

• Japanese: キメラ (ja) (kimera)
• Russian: химера (ru) (ximéra) f
• Swedish: chimär (sv) c

creature of the imagination

• Armenian: ցնորք (hy) (c’nork’), պատրանք (hy) (patrank’), քիմերա (hy) (kʿimera)
• Catalan: quimera (ca) f
• Czech: chiméra (cs)
• Esperanto: ĥimero (eo)

• French: chimère (fr) f
• German: Schimäre (de) f
• Hungarian: kiméra (hu)
• Russian: химера (ru) (ximéra) f
• Swedish: chimär (sv) c

marine fish of the order Chimaeriformes

• Finnish: sillikuningaskala (fi)

See also

• Chimaera
• Appendix:Glossary of architecture

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Italian

Noun

chimera f (plural chimere)

1. chimera