mysterious

/mis'tiəriəs/

Thân thiện

A mysterious package arrived on the doorstep.

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Difficult or impossible to understand, explain, or identify; having a secret or obscure quality that arouses curiosity or wonder: Describes something that is not fully known or is puzzling, often suggesting an aura of secrecy or the supernatural.
   • Suggestive of mystery; having an air of secrecy or the unknown: Describes a quality or atmosphere that is intriguingly elusive or enigmatic.

Examples of Usage

• Adjective:
  • The disappearance of the ship remains a mysterious event.
  • She received a mysterious package with no return address.
  • He has a mysterious past that he never discusses.
  • The old house had a mysterious atmosphere.

Advanced Usage

• "mysterious to someone": Puzzling or incomprehensible from a specific person's perspective.
  • The local customs were completely mysterious to the tourists.
• Used to describe an abstract quality.
  • There was a mysterious beauty to the deserted landscape.

Variants and Related Words

• Mysteriously (adverb): In a way that is difficult to understand or explain.
  • The lights went out mysteriously.
• Mystery (noun): Something that is difficult or impossible to understand or explain; a genre of fiction involving a puzzle or crime.
  • The origin of the artifact is a complete mystery.

Synonyms

• Enigmatic: Puzzling, difficult to interpret.
• Cryptic: Having a meaning that is mysterious or obscure.
• Inscrutable: Impossible to understand or interpret.
• Occult: Relating to mystical, supernatural, or magical powers, practices, or phenomena (often more specific).

Antonyms

• Clear: Easy to perceive, understand, or interpret.
• Obvious: Easily perceived or understood; clear.
• Straightforward: Uncomplicated and easy to do or understand.

Related Phrases and Idioms

• A mysterious stranger: A common literary trope referring to an enigmatic, unknown person.
  • A mysterious stranger appeared at the door.
• Veiled in mystery: Surrounded by or concealed in secrecy.
  • The ancient ceremony was veiled in mystery.

Học thuật

Adjective

1. having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding
   • mysterious symbols
   • the mystical style of Blake
   • occult lore
   • the secret learning of the ancients
2. of an obscure nature
   • the new insurance policy is written without cryptic or mysterious terms
   • a deep dark secret
   • the inscrutable workings of Providence
   • in its mysterious past it encompasses all the dim origins of life- Rachel Carson
   • rituals totally mystifying to visitors from other lands

Từ đồng nghĩa

• mystic
• mystical
• occult
• secret
• orphic
• cryptic
• cryptical
• deep
• inscrutable
• mystifying