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MYSTERIOUS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding
Example:
the secret learning of the ancients
Synonyms:
mysterious; mystic; mystical; occult; orphic; secret
Classified under:
Similar:
esoteric (confined to and understandable by only an enlightened inner circle)
Derivation:
mystery (something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Of an obscure nature
Example:
rituals totally mystifying to visitors from other lands
Synonyms:
cryptic; cryptical; deep; inscrutable; mysterious; mystifying
Classified under:
Similar:
incomprehensible; inexplicable (incapable of being explained or accounted for)
Derivation:
mystery (something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained)
Context examples:
Oh! my dear mother, you must be wrong in permitting an engagement between a daughter so young, a man so little known, to be carried on in so doubtful, so mysterious a manner!
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
It is all so wild, and mysterious, and strange that if I had not known Jonathan's experience in Transylvania I could not have believed.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
It seemed to me that a careful examination of the room and the lawn might possibly reveal some traces of this mysterious individual.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
No longer was this fact borne in upon him in some subtle, mysterious way.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
They were warmer last night when I touched them at the door of the mysterious chamber.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
And yet there were indications that even human life itself was not far from us in those mysterious recesses.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It was not very long after this that there occurred the first of the mysterious events that rid us at last of the captain, though not, as you will see, of his affairs.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
If it were one which would also admit of the mysterious note with its very curious phraseology, why, then it would be worth accepting as a temporary hypothesis.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I assure you, then, that what I am about to tell you, surprising as it may seem, is the absolute and undeniable truth concerning the mysterious death of Captain Barrington.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The next day afforded no opportunity for the proposed examination of the mysterious apartments.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
