mysterious

Word family

• mystery
  nounB1
• mysteriously
  adverbB1
• mysteriousness
  nounC1
• mystify
  verbB2
• mystifying
  adjectiveB2
• mystification
  nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All five words describe things that are hard to understand, but they differ in tone and focus. Mysterious is the broadest and most neutral term — it can apply to a strange noise, an unsolved crime, or a quiet person with a hidden past. Puzzling narrows the focus to mental difficulty: a crossword clue or a maths problem can be puzzling, but not mysterious. Enigmatic carries a more literary, almost flattering tone — it often describes a person with a deep, attractive air of secrecy (an enigmatic smile). Cryptic is more concrete, usually describing words or symbols deliberately made hard to decode (a cryptic message). Baffling suggests total confusion — something that leaves you with no explanation at all. Use mysterious for everyday situations where something feels unknown; use the others when you want to specify what kind of unknown it is.

Common collocations

Etymology

Mysterious traces back to the Greek word mystērion, meaning a secret religious rite or doctrine. The root myein meant 'to close the eyes or lips' — because initiates in ancient mystery religions were required to keep the rituals secret. The word passed into Latin as mysterium, then into Old French as mystérieux, and finally into English in the 1300s. The suffix -ous ('full of') was added later, giving mysterious the sense of 'full of mystery'. The modern meaning — anything that cannot be explained or understood — broadened from the original idea of hidden religious knowledge.