enigma

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /əˈnɪɡmə/ UK /ɪˈnɪɡmə/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a person or thing that is mysterious or hard to understand

His sudden disappearance remained an enigma for decades.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a person or thing that is... mystery puzzle riddle conundrum paradox mystification

Word family

Derived forms enigmatic enigmatical enigmatically

Related forms enigmatic enigmatical

Simplified etymology

Enigma entered English in the mid-16th century from Latin and is based on Greek ainissesthai, “to speak allusively.” It originally meant a riddle or obscure utterance before broadening to a mysterious or difficult-to-understand person or thing.

Etymology

From Latin aenigma ('riddle, obscure saying'), from Ancient Greek aínigma, from ainíssesthai ('to speak in riddles'), from aînos ('fable, tale').

aenigma Latin αἴνιγμα Ancient Greek αἶνος Ancient Greek

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society

External links

# enigma

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /əˈnɪɡmə/
**IPA (UK):** /ɪˈnɪɡmə/

## Meanings
1. a person or thing that is mysterious or hard to understand

## Examples
- His sudden disappearance remained an enigma for decades.

## Synonyms
- mystery
- puzzle
- riddle
- conundrum
- paradox
- mystification

## Derived Forms
- enigmatic
- enigmatical
- enigmatically

## Related Forms
- enigmatic
- enigmatical

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: aenigma
- Root: αἴνιγμα
- Root: αἶνος

## Etymology
From Latin aenigma ('riddle, obscure saying'), from Ancient Greek aínigma, from ainíssesthai ('to speak in riddles'), from aînos ('fable, tale').

## AI Etymology
Enigma comes from Latin aenigma ('riddle, obscure saying'), from Ancient Greek aínigma, from ainíssesthai ('to speak in riddles'), from aînos ('fable, tale'). The etymological trail includes Latin aenigma, Ancient Greek αἴνιγμα, and Ancient Greek αἶνος. As a noun, enigma names a person or thing that is mysterious or hard to understand. The same family is visible in derived forms such as enigmatic, enigmatical, and enigmatically and related forms such as enigmatic and enigmatical.

## Topics
- People & Society

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