variants
also chimeric
as in imaginary
not real and existing only in the imagination
for the time being, interplanetary travel remains a chimerical feature of life in the 21st century
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of chimerical
The fantasy of endless space is what matters, a great chimeric promise, this production understands, that both sustains the nation and goes unfulfilled.
—
Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 16 Oct. 2025
Advertisement But this victory proved chimerical.
—Time, 12 Sep. 2025
Projections of economic gains from major sporting events are typically optimistic, euphoric, chimerical or conjectural.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 19 June 2025
Meanwhile, Kilgore, his dream of fame approaching, also sees its chimerical agonies.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 14 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for chimerical
Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 16 Oct. 2025
Advertisement But this victory proved chimerical.
—Time, 12 Sep. 2025
Projections of economic gains from major sporting events are typically optimistic, euphoric, chimerical or conjectural.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 19 June 2025
Meanwhile, Kilgore, his dream of fame approaching, also sees its chimerical agonies.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 14 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for chimerical
Recent Examples of Synonyms for chimerical
Adjective
-
Engendered by the ubiquity of stable and robust WiFi and the incredible power of the smartphone’s system-on-a-chip design, the smart everything era demonstrates the full transfer of the smartness imaginary.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
2 Apr. 2026
-
Following Christopher Columbus’ first voyage, the rulers of Portugal and Spain, by the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), partitioned the non-Christian world between them by an imaginary line in the Atlantic, 370 leagues (about 1,300 miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
2 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
One requires election records to be maintained for 22 months, while the other prohibits procuring, casting or tabulating false, fictitious or fraudulent ballots.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
29 Mar. 2026
-
Increasingly, human resources departments noticed that applicants used the résumé to tell white lies, and even bigger fibs, listing fictitious degrees, fake promotions and other embellishments.—
Stephen Mihm,
Twin Cities,
29 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
In the immediate wake of Adebayo scoring 83 — second in NBA history only to Wilt Chamberlain’s mythical 100 — in a 150-129 blowout victory, Wizards coach Brian Keefe questioned the means to that end.—
Ira Winderman,
Sun Sentinel,
3 Apr. 2026
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Per the new show’s official logline, in this new era of Peaky Blinders, a decade after World War Two, the race to rebuild Birmingham becomes a brutal contest of mythical dimensions.—
Nellie Andreeva,
Deadline,
2 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
The two bonded over Crane’s adoration of the 1930s fictional detective Nero Wolfe and the formative subject of their fathers.—
Annie Vainshtein,
San Francisco Chronicle,
3 Apr. 2026
-
Getting cleared of a gruesome crime has boosted his social cache in his upper-class neighborhood of Westmont Village, a fictional New York suburb.—
Aramide Tinubu,
Variety,
3 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
The title track is simply a recitation of imagined Spotify playlists, and once the joke lands we’re not left with much.—
The Week US,
TheWeek,
25 Mar. 2026
-
The campaign, which started in 2024, is part of the zoo's overall goal to fund a world-class aquarium, a larger education center and a re-imagined butterfly garden at the Great Plains Zoo campus.—
Shelly Conlon,
Sioux Falls Argus Leader,
17 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
Peter [Merry] likes to use is that, when a caterpillar is becoming a butterfly, new ‘imaginal cells’ emerge.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
7 Aug. 2025
-
With one technique, for example—called imaginal exposure—you might be asked to visualize the process of going to the airport, boarding the plane, and experiencing a bad bout of turbulence.—
Angela Haupt,
TIME,
10 May 2024
Cite this Entry
“Chimerical.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/chimerical. Accessed 5 Apr. 2026.
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