enigma
Americannoun
-
a puzzling or inexplicable occurrence or situation.
His disappearance is an enigma that has given rise to much speculation.
- Synonyms:
- problem
-
a person of puzzling or contradictory character.
To me he has always been an enigma, one minute completely insensitive, the next moved to tears.
-
a saying, question, picture, etc., containing a hidden meaning; riddle.
-
(initial capital letter) a German-built enciphering machine developed for commercial use in the early 1920s and later adapted and appropriated by German and other Axis powers for military use through World War II.
noun
Usage
What does enigma mean? An enigma is someone or something that’s puzzling, mysterious, or difficult to make sense of. The word enigma can also mean a riddle, but it’s more often used to refer to something that’s so perplexing that it seems like a riddle (and perhaps was intended to seem like one), as in That book is an enigma—I have no idea what it’s really about. If you call a person an enigma, you mean that they’re hard to figure out—the reasons behind what they say and do are not easily understood. Some people try to be enigmas to be mysterious. The adjective enigmatic can be used to describe someone or something that’s puzzling or mysterious. Example: I’ve known him for years, but he’s still a total enigma to me—I have no idea what his interests are or what he’s really like.
Related Words
See puzzle.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of enigma
First recorded in 1530–40; from Latin aenigma, from Greek aínigma, equivalent to ainik- (stem of ainíssesthai “to speak in riddles,” derivative of aînos fable) + -ma noun suffix of result
Explanation
Use the noun enigma to refer to something that is a puzzle or a mystery. Why do you have to learn difficult words like this? That is an enigma. Traveling to English from Greek by means of the Latin word for "riddle," enigma refers to something or someone that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to figure out. Many things have been named Enigma, including a rock band, a video game, a rollercoaster ride, and a very famous coding machine used in World War II.
Vocabulary lists containing enigma
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "E"
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The Thing About Jellyfish
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
His report on the Enigma Network spurred Hong Kong’s largest financial investigation to date.
From Barron's • Apr. 7, 2026
Shepard worked closely with senior and co-corresponding author Andreas S. Tolias, PhD, professor at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford University and co-founding director of the Enigma Project.
From Science Daily • Dec. 9, 2025
“Our world has become so Taylorized, we scarcely see it. It’s in every aspect of our lives,” says Robert Kanigel, author of “The One Best Way: Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 23, 2025
The scientist played a crucial role in the Allies' victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two by helping to crack codes and deciphering the infamous Enigma machine at Bletchley Park.
From BBC • Nov. 7, 2024
I remember the feeling well, from when I first met Enigma.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
