mystery

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained

   how it got out is a mystery

2. 2
   noun

   Something secret or unexplainable; an unknown.

   The truth behind the events remains a mystery.

3. 3
   noun

   Someone or something with an obscure or puzzling nature.

   That man is a mystery.

4. 4
   noun

   A mystery play.

   The Moralities displayed something more of art and invention than the Mysteries; in them virtues, vices and qualities were personified, and something like a plot was frequently to be discovered.

5. 5
   noun

   A secret or mystical meaning.

   […] and, not knowing the meaning or misterie of her pollicie, forgat no termes of reproche or rigorous rebuke against his chast doughter.

6. 6
   noun

   A religious truth not understandable by the application of human reason alone (without divine aid).

   1744 (first printed), Jonathan Swift, A Sermon on the Trinity If God should please to reveal unto us this great mystery of the Trinity, or some other mysteries in our holy religion, we should not be able to understand them, unless he would bestow on us some new faculties of the mind.

7. 7
   noun

   A sacrament.

   There are seven mysteries, or sacraments, in the Greek church, viz. baptism, the chrism (a rite peculiar to this church), the eucharist, confession, ordination, marriage, and the holy oil.

8. 8
   noun

   A secret religious celebration, admission to which was usually through initiation.

   the Eleusinian mysteries

Etymology

From Middle English mysterie, from Anglo-Norman misterie (Old French mistere), from Latin mysterium, from Ancient Greek μυστήριον (mustḗrion, “a mystery, a secret, a secret rite”), from μύστης (mústēs, “initiated one”), from μυέω (muéō, “to initiate”), from μύω (múō, “to shut”). Displaced native Old English ġerȳne.