chimera - (also chimaera) n.
1 (in Greek mythology) a fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail.
2 a fantastic or grotesque product of the imagination; a bogey.
3 any fabulous beast with parts taken from various animals.
4 Biol. a an organism containing genetically different tissues, formed by grafting, mutation, etc. b a nucleic acid formed by laboratory manipulation.
5 any cartilaginous fish of the family Chimaeridae, usu. having a long tapering caudal fin.

chimeric adj. chimerical adj. chimerically adv. [L f. Gk khimaira she-goat, chimera]