mystery

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

n. secret, enigma, puzzle, cabala; rite, sacrament. See concealment, latency, obscurity, unintelligibility.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [The quality of being mysterious]

Syn. inscrutability, inscrutableness, unfathomableness, unfathomability, undiscoverability, unanswerableness, unexplainableness, inexplicableness, abstruseness, equivocality, esoterism, occultism, cabalism; see also irregularity 2 , magic 1 , 2 , strangeness .

Ant. clarity*, discoverability, scrutability.

2. [Something difficult to know]

Syn. riddle, conundrum, enigma, secret; see puzzle 2 , secret .

3. [A trick]

Syn. sleight-of-hand, trick of magic, juggle; see trick 1 .

4. [*A mystery story]

Syn. detective story, mystery play, mystery movie; see story .

See Synonym Study at puzzle .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

1. an unknown puzzle, enigma, perplexity, conundrum, secret, closed book, question mark.

2. inscrutability obscurity, imperceptibility, secret, inexplicability, in-solvability.

3. novel/play police procedural, detective story, *whodunit, *cat and mouse, *cloak and dagger, *cozy.

ANT.: 1. open book, answer, explanation, clarification

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun Anything that arouses curiosity or perplexes because it is unexplained, inexplicable, or secret: conundrum, enigma, perplexity, puzzle, puzzler, riddle. See SHOW.