enigma
- 1A person or thing that is puzzling, mysterious, or impossible to explain.
For all his interviews, the reclusive director remains an enigma even to his fans.
The disappearance of the ship remains one of the great enigmas of the sea.
UsageUsually remain or be an enigma, often to someone: an enigma to her fans. The plural is enigmas.
Similarmystery, puzzle, conundrum, riddle
Note
A riddle that grew into a person: Latin aenigma meant a riddle, from a Greek word for a dark saying, and English now applies it to anyone or anything that will not be explained.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Latin aenigma meant a riddle. en.wiktionary.org
- English enigma derives from Latin aenigma, itself from Ancient Greek αἴνιγμα, meaning a dark saying. en.wiktionary.org
- 2A riddle, or a problem that is difficult to solve.
The puzzle book ends with a clever enigma that few readers ever crack.
The mechanics treated the stalling engine as an enigma to be solved one part at a time.
UsageRiddle is the everyday word; enigma is the more literary one.
Similarriddle, puzzle, conundrum, mystery
Note
Here the word keeps its first job, a puzzle set in words to be solved. Shakespeare pairs it with its plainer cousin in Love's Labour's Lost, "Some enigma, some riddle", and the pairing still holds: riddle is the everyday word, enigma the more literary one. It can also stretch to any hard problem that must be worked out piece by piece.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- The riddle meaning preserves the meaning of the word's Latin and Greek ancestors. en.wiktionary.org
- Shakespeare pairs enigma with riddle in Love's Labour's Lost, using the exact words quoted; Armado speaks them in Act 3, scene 1. folger.edu
- 3The quality of being mysterious or obscure; a lack of clarity.
Much of the poet's early life is wrapped in enigma.
Her smile has an air of enigma that no photograph quite captures.
UsageCan follow wrapped in or shrouded in: a life shrouded in enigma.
Oppositeclarity
Note
Ido Yavetz's title From Obscurity to Enigma draws the line neatly: obscurity means being unknown, enigma means being known and still not understood.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Ido Yavetz wrote From Obscurity to Enigma. link.springer.com
Less common meanings
- 4Riddles and puzzles taken together as a whole.
From the beginning, readers of The Enigma of Arrival are likely to feel surrounded by enigma and puzzle.
2000, Harish Trivedi, Richard Allen - 5A literary style marked by obscurity and by hints of a transcendental meaning.
The interpretive effort elicited by enigma approaches an instant of transcendent understanding that has the force of revelation, yet without ever fully or permanently reaching it.
2017, Curtis A. Gruenler, Piers Plowman and the Poetics of Enigma - 6A protein that regulates protein phosphorylation and has three LIM domains, conserved cysteine- and histidine-rich pairs of adjacent zinc fingers, at its C terminus.
Practice
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Origin
αἴνιγμα (aínigma), a verbal noun in Ancient Greek meaning "dark saying, speaking in riddles," gave Latin aenigma ("riddle"), the source of the English word.