mysterious
UK /mɪˈstɪə̯.ɹi.əs/ · US /mɪˈstɪɹi.əs/ adjective
- adjective Of unknown origin. “He received a mysterious phone call this morning.”
- adjective Having unknown qualities. “Our boss is a mysterious man who hardly ever meets with us.”
- adjective Difficult to understand. “Why he left without saying goodbye is quite mysterious.”
- adjective Deliberately evasive or enigmatic. “Stop being mysterious and just tell me what you want.”
Synonyms
untraceable esoteric uncertain undefined abstruse Chinese dense enigmatic fathomless bottomless Greek inapprehensible incognizable incomprehensible ineffable inenubilable inexplicable impenetrable insensible inscrutable cryptic cryptical deep mystifying mystic mystical occult secret orphic
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English *misterius (implied in misteriusly), probably partly from Middle French mystérieux and partly from Latin mystērium + -ous. By surface analysis, mystery + -ous.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Of or pertaining to mystery; containing a mystery; difficult or impossible to understand; obscure not revealed or explained; enigmatical; incomprehensible.
Etymology [F. mystèrieux. See 1st Mystery.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “mysterious”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details