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  1. chimera love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. 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.
  2. n. A substance, such as an antibody, created from the proteins or genes or two different species.
  3. n. An individual who has received a transplant of genetically and immunologically different tissue.
  4. n. A fanciful mental illusion or fabrication.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In Greek myth, a fire-breathing monster, the fore part of whose body, according to the Iliad, was that of a lion, the middle that of a goat, and the hinder that of a dragon, or which, according to Hesiod, had three heads, one of each of these animals: supposed by the ancients to represent a volcanic mountain of that name in Lycia, the top of which was said to be the resort of lions, the middle that of goats, and the foot that of serpents. The Chimera, a symbol of storms and other destructive natural forces, was overcome and slain by the solar hero Bellerophon.
  2. n. Hence— In ornamental art, etc., a fantastic assemblage of animal forms so combined as to produce a single complete but unnatural design.
  3. n. An absurd or impossible creature of the imagination; a vain or idle fancy; a fantastic conceit.
  4. n. Same as chimere.

Wiktionary

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

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Myth.) A monster represented as vomiting flames, and as having the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon.
  2. n. A vain, foolish, or incongruous fancy, or creature of the imagination.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a grotesque product of the imagination
  2. n. (Greek mythology) fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head and a goat's body and a serpent's tail; daughter of Typhon

Etymologies

  1. 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. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English chimere, Chimera, from Old French, from Latin chimaera, from Greek khimaira, chimera, she-goat; see ghei- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Infallibility; Protestants devoting themselves to the dismal task of paring down the dimensions of this miracle, and reducing the credibility of that one -- as if any appreciable relief from the burden of faith could be so obtained; sentimental sceptics, who, after labouring to demolish what they call the chimera of superstition, fall to weeping as they remember they have now no lies to teach their children; democrats who are frightened at the rough voice of the people, and aristocrats flirting with democracy.”

    Obiter Dicta

  • “Where the chimera is viewed as strong, this may in turn act as a pressure for evasive dewarping as writers mine highly conjectural theory for original ideas.”

    Archive 2009-06-01

  • “February 24th, 2009 at 11: 48 pm technically, according to greek mythology, a chimera is not a human-animal hybrid, but a multi-species hybrid. a centaur would be a better choice to make your point. (/obnoxious pedantry)”

    Matthew Yglesias » Speech FAIL

  • “This leads to the interesting question of what happens to the extra soul when tetragametic chimerism happens. the chimera is formed from the merger of two fraternal twins in a very early (zygote or blastocyst) phase.”

    Think Progress » Bush on Stem Cell Veto: ‘These Boys and Girls Are Not Spare Parts’

  • “In humans, a chimera occurs when one fraternal twin fuses with another in utero.”

    Simon & Schuster: Rogue Oracle

  • ““In mythology, the chimera was a combination of a lion, a goat, and a snake,” Tara said.”

    Simon & Schuster: Rogue Oracle

  • “The term chimera comes from Greek mythology, and refers to a creature made of the parts of different animals.”

    The Huffington Post: Steven Potter: 'Designer Genes': Stem Cells Used to Make Replacement Organs

  • “Durack's emphasis was a careful undressing of "new urbanism": without an awareness of urban ecology and a strategic input, the urban village may be little more than a dangerous "chimera" -- a code word for impossible fantasy.”

    The Huffington Post: Charles R. Wolfe: Urbanism, Placemaking and the Venetian Ghetto

  • “But this hybrid, known as a chimera, has sparked serious ethical debate.”

    CNN Transcript Jan 5, 2007

  • “To fool someone into sacrificing his life to battle a chimera is a hideous abuse of the public trust.”

    Hullabaloo

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synonyms (4)

Words with the same meaning

  1. fancy
  1. rabbitfish
  1. ratfish
  1. ghost shark

hypernyms (6)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. imagery
  1. imagination
  1. mental imagery
  1. imaging
  1. mythical monster
  1. mythical creature

same context (7)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. chimaera
  1. figment
  1. phantasm
  1. sphinx
  1. hallucination
  1. griffin
  1. aberration

rhymes (43)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Berra
  2. Canberra
  3. Cara
  4. Clara
  5. Gera
  6. Kara
  7. Kundera
  8. Leora
  1. Matera
  2. Pereira
  3. Ribera
  4. Rivera
  5. Riviera
  6. Sahara
  7. Sara
  8. Sarah
  1. Serra
  2. Sierra
  3. Svizzera
  4. Tara
  5. Terra
  6. Valera
  7. Vera
  8. acerra
  1. barbera
  2. caldera
  3. cera
  4. era
  5. guayabera
  6. higuera
  7. kara
  8. kera
  1. mascara
  2. naira
  3. para
  4. patera
  5. primavera
  6. provera
  7. sierra
  8. tara
  1. terra
  2. terre
  3. vera

reverse dictionary (12)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. Bellerophon
  2. sea-monster
  1. chimaera
  2. Chimaera
  1. sea-rat
  2. chimerism
  1. Typhon
  2. chimerical
  1. chimeral
  2. chimeric
  1. entity
  2. windmill

tags (3)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. ccvcvcv
  1. ch sounds like k
  1. ppwp_shouldknow

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tagging (2)

Words tagged ‘chimera’

  1. Bellerophon
  1. chimere

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Lists

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Comments

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  • honeycomb It is also spelt 'chimaera' reflecting its Greek origin. Originally, it was a fabulous beast - a fire-sputing monster with a lion's head, srpent's tail and a goat's body. It came to mean any idle or wild fancy, especially one that would prove to be short-lived, to 'melt away' like a mirage. Apr 6, 2009

  • punchcard Typically seen in zoology (but also discovered to a rare extent in human beings), a chimera is an animal that has two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated in different zygotes; if the different cells emerged from the same zygote, it is called a mosaicism.

    from:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics) Mar 6, 2009

  • frogapplause In medicine, a person composed of two genetically distinct types of cells. About 8% of non-identical twin pairs are chimeras. Oct 12, 2008

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‘chimera’ has been looked up 5851 times, loved by 23 people, added to 197 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.