Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or being a religious mystery.
  • adjective Arousing wonder or curiosity, especially by being difficult to explain or understand.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Partaking of or containing mystery; obscure; not revealed or explained; unintelligible.
  • Expressing, intimating, or implying a mystery: as, a mysterious look; his manner was very mysterious and important.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to mystery; containing a mystery; difficult or impossible to understand; inexplicable; obscure; not revealed or explained; enigmatical; incomprehensible.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of unknown origin
  • adjective Having unknown qualities

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding
  • adjective of an obscure nature

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French mystérieux, from mystère, secret, from Latin mystērium; see mystery.]

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Examples

  • I must frankly admit, however, that, either owing to the derangement of my nerves, or my new impressions in my new lodgings, or my recent melancholy, I gradually began at dusk to sink into that condition which is so common with me now at night in my illness, and which I call mysterious horror.

    The Insulted and the Injured 2003

  • Reinhard Kala Gertze, a Swapo member in training for a foreign affairs position in the movement, was arrested in 1983 and taken to what he described as a mysterious place.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1996

  • Ability to know this model and rule constitutes what we call the mysterious excellence (of a governor).

    The Tao Teh King, or the Tao and its Characteristics Laozi 1856

  • He had therefore made up his mind to watch the motions of _Cooleen Bawn_, and he would have included Reilly in his surveillance were it not that Lanigan informed him of what he termed the mysterious disappearance of the under-gardener.

    Willy Reilly The Works of William Carleton, Volume One William Carleton 1831

  • Mass walkout at UN as Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad raises 9/11 'mystery' THE Iranian President has sparked a mass walkout of diplomats at the UN after attacking Western powers over the Holocaust and 9/11, which he called a "mysterious incident".

    NEWS.com.au | Top Stories 2011

  • In 185 A.D., Chinese astronomers witnessed what they called a mysterious "guest star" that appeared in the sky and lingered for about eight months.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • Mass walkout at UN as Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad raises 9/11 'mystery' THE Iranian President has sparked a mass walkout of diplomats at the UN after attacking Western powers over the Holocaust and 9/11, which he called a "mysterious incident".

    NEWS.com.au | Top Stories 2011

  • Western diplomats walked out on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after he questioned what he called the "mysterious September 11 incident" during his fiercely anti-American diatribe.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • Ability to know this model and rule constitutes what we call the mysterious excellence (of a governor).

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2008

  • England moves in mysterious ways when it comes to Bank Holiday Weekends.

    Jean's Knitting Jean 2009

Comments

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  • “I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.�?

    -Edgar Allan Poe

    Correct me if I am mistaken: shouldn't the statement have 'mysterious' as an adverb?

    July 22, 2009

  • Mr Poe, he don't write so good.

    July 22, 2009