enigma

American  

[uh-nig-muh] / əˈnɪg mə /

noun

plural

enigmas,

plural

enigmata

1. a puzzling or inexplicable occurrence or situation.

   His disappearance is an enigma that has given rise to much speculation.

   Synonyms:

   problem

2. a person of puzzling or contradictory character.

   To me he has always been an enigma, one minute completely insensitive, the next moved to tears.

3. a saying, question, picture, etc., containing a hidden meaning; riddle.

4. (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.

---

enigma British  

/ ˌɛnɪɡˈmætɪk, ɪˈnɪɡmə /

noun

1. a person, thing, or situation that is mysterious, puzzling, or ambiguous

---

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

• enigmatic adjective
• enigmatically adverb

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

Example Sentences

It’s Seyfried who elevates “The Housemaid” from guilty pleasure status, making it an exhilarating enigma at one moment and genuinely affecting the next.

From Salon

But she said the film, which goes on global release on Friday and will later be shown exclusively on Amazon Prime, would give people a look behind the enigma.

From Barron's

People guessed on the color of her eyes and hair; some supposed that the enigma behind the column inches was a man.

From The Wall Street Journal

The song’s lyrics don’t directly correspond to the beauty and pain contained in “Sound of Falling” — it’s just one more layer of enigma in a movie that doesn’t answer all its riddles.

From Los Angeles Times

She’s a symbol of how gratifying it can be to expand your horizons, to use your brain and to make sense of life’s many enigmas, all wrapped up in one invariably chic package.

From Salon

Related Words

• conundrum
• puzzle