Chimera Definition

kīmirə, kimirə
chimeras
noun
chimeras
An organism, organ, or part consisting of two or more tissues of different genetic composition, produced as a result of organ transplant, grafting, or genetic engineering.
American Heritage Medicine
Any similar fabulous monster.
Webster's New World
An individual who has received a transplant of genetically and immunologically different tissue.
American Heritage Medicine
An impossible or foolish fancy.
Webster's New World
An organism having two or more genetically distinct types of cells due to mutation, grafting, etc.
Webster's New World
Antonyms:
pronoun

(Greek mythology) One of the many fantastical offspring of Typhon and Echidna, a multi-headed monster represented as vomiting flames. It had the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and a dragon for a tail. Killed by the hero Bellerophon in Lycea.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Chimera

Noun

Singular:
chimera
Plural:
chimeras

Origin of Chimera

  • From Old French chimere, from Latin chimaera, from Ancient Greek Χίμαιρα (khimaira). 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.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English chimere Chimera from Old French from Latin chimaera from Greek khimaira female goat, Chimera ghei- in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Ancient Greek Χίμαιρα (Khimaira).

    From Wiktionary

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