MYSTERY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does mystery mean? 

• MYSTERY (noun)
  The noun MYSTERY has 2 senses:

1. something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained

2. a story about a crime (usually murder) presented as a novel or play or movie

  Familiarity information: MYSTERY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MYSTERY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

closed book; enigma; mystery; secret

Context example:

it remains one of nature's secrets

Hypernyms ("mystery" is a kind of...):

perplexity (trouble or confusion resulting from complexity)

Derivation:

mysterious (having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding)

mysterious (of an obscure nature)

mystify (make mysterious)

mystify (be a mystery or bewildering to)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A story about a crime (usually murder) presented as a novel or play or movie

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

mystery; mystery story; whodunit

Hypernyms ("mystery" is a kind of...):

story (a piece of fiction that narrates a chain of related events)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "mystery"):

detective story (a narrative about someone who investigates crimes and obtains evidence leading to their resolution)

murder mystery (a narrative about a murder and how the murderer is discovered)

 Context examples 

When the day arrived, my very carpet-bag was an object of veneration to the stipendiary clerks, to whom the house at Norwood was a sacred mystery.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But the mystery and oppressiveness vanished after the first few seconds of waking, when I identified the missing something as the wind.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

"It's a mystery," replied the Lion.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Yes, my dear Watson, I have solved the mystery.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the guilty parties.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But how it arrived on the early Earth is something of a mystery.

(Astronomers Reveal Interstellar Thread of One of Life’s Building Blocks, ESO)

The reason for the dramatic decline is still a mystery to the scientists.

(Study: World's Largest King Penguin Colony Declines Sharply, VOA)

Exactly why the bright methane ice settles on these crater rims and walls is a mystery; also puzzling is why this same effect doesn’t occur broadly across Pluto.

(Pluto’s ‘Halo’ Craters, NASA)

The origin of the features and their reddish color is a mystery to Cassini scientists.

(Unusual Red Arcs Spotted on Icy Saturn Moon, NASA)

Terror itself, and the mystery of the unknown, led to his living.

(White Fang, by Jack London)