enigmatic
Americanadjective
Usage
What does enigmatic mean? The adjective enigmatic can be used to describe someone or something that’s puzzling or mysterious. Enigmatic means resembling an enigma—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 completely enigmatic—I have no idea what it’s really about. If you call a person enigmatic, 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 enigmatic to be mysterious. Example: I’ve known him for years, but he’s completely enigmatic—I have no idea what his interests are or what he’s really like.
Related Words
See ambiguous.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of enigmatic
First recorded in 1620–30; from Late Latin aenigmaticus, from Greek ainigmatikós, equivalent to ainigmat- (stem of aínigma “riddle, taunt”) + -ikos adjective suffix; see origin at enigma, -ic
Explanation
Something that's enigmatic is tough to figure out. It's puzzling and even mysterious, like those weird secret college societies, Mona Lisa's smile, or the New York Times crossword. It's no mystery where the adjective enigmatic comes from: It's rooted in the Greek word for riddle. Something that's enigmatic is obscure, unclear and not an easy nut to crack. Translating the Rosetta Stone, with its ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and mysterious foreign writings, was certainly an enigmatic challenge for the archaeologists that found it.
Vocabulary lists containing enigmatic
Essential Academic Vocabulary for High School Students, List 2
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Grade 10, List 6
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30 GRE Words Beginning with "E" and "F"
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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.
Enigmatic street artist Banksy was recently revealed to be a man in his early 50s from Bristol, England.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 17, 2026
Enigmatic to the very end, Craig demurred when asked if he knows what’s next: “Yes, but I don’t want to talk about it.”
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 16, 2022
Enigmatic and imperfect, but nonetheless absorbing and consistently unsettling, “Cordelia” offers a haunting visualization of a breaking-apart psyche.
From New York Times • May 19, 2022
Enigmatic forward Kasperi Kapanen, with a $3.2 million contract, has just nine goals in 57 games this season and was demoted during a loss to Florida on Tuesday night.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 11, 2022
Enigmatic as was the latter, it was as simple as an infant's compared to the occult character of her glance.
From In and out of Three Normady Inns by Dodd, Anna Bowman
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.
