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I have only run across this word twice in my life and it was used to describe something that was deeply desired by a person, yet for them it was impossible to ever attain. Therefore, the word in question described what this thing was to them. For example:

"Given the problems with Dave's past, a healthy relationship with his dad is ___________. "

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  • Although possibly too much in this case, look into "quixotic". "A quixotic quest. A quixotic crusade. After everything that has occurred, building a healthy relationship with his dad is probably nothing more than a quixotic dream." – Michael Benjamin May 07 '18 at 19:17
  • @Edwin Ashworth - here OP is asking for a rare word, the supposed “duplicate” question doesn’t answer this trait of the question. Please read carefully before close-voting. – user 66974 May 07 '18 at 19:37
  • @user3850720 I virtually always do. The duplicate subsumes this question; I specifically checked that 'chimera' was suggested there. Please don't trivialise the site. – Edwin Ashworth May 07 '18 at 19:42
  • @EdwinAshworth - chimera was just one suggestion, other interesting ones might have come up, had the question not been improperly put on hold. – user 66974 May 07 '18 at 19:43
  • @user3850720 Then they could / should have also come up at the duplicate. – Edwin Ashworth May 07 '18 at 22:02
  • @EdwinAshworth - Could/should ? it’s a close mania issue. A problem on this site. – user 66974 May 08 '18 at 05:15
  • OP has accepted your answer. So it's the only answer they were interested in {the rare word that describes something that is impossible to attain yet it is still desired}, which makes the question too narrowly scoped for ELU anyway. Other possibilities for a more general audience (pipe dream / wishful thinking / fantasy / pie in the sky) are given at the duplicate. And here. – Edwin Ashworth May 08 '18 at 07:33
  • @EdwinAshworth - This is interesting discussion. I actually searched the site for a similar question for quite a while before posting my own. Maybe this site isn't very intuitive if a duplicate existed but I was unable locate it with a simple search. – johncrisp82 May 08 '18 at 21:26
  • @EdwinAshworth - Also when you marked my question as a duplicate, you didn't include a link to the question that was previously answered. This doesn't help either. Finally, you refer to the other question as "the duplicate" but you marked my question as the duplicate. Seems sloppy for a website about English Language & Usage. – johncrisp82 May 08 '18 at 21:27
  • The reasons the site is hard to search are (a) people sometimes supply totally unhelpful titles and (b) it is getting very large, unnecessarily so because people keep adding duplicate questions. // The link is given automatically with duplicate closures. You missed it. // There has been a discussion about the dual role of 'duplicate'. It was considered acceptable. This time, it is understandable that you missed it. – Edwin Ashworth May 08 '18 at 21:34

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Chimera: ​

a hope or dream that is extremely unlikely ever to come true: Is the ideal of banishing hunger throughout the world just a chimera?

(Cambridge Dictionary)

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