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
- enigmatically adverb
- nonenigmatic adjective
- nonenigmatical adjective
- nonenigmatically adverb
- unenigmatic adjective
- unenigmatical adjective
- unenigmatically adverb
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; enigma, -ic
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.
The enigmatic tycoon had given up his Chinese nationality to become a Cambodian citizen in 2014.
From BBC
In an official press release wrapping up their 2025 dates, the band were quietly enigmatic.
From BBC
Though generally handsome and admirably executed, they often remain impenetrable, enigmatic objects—carriers saddled with ideas—rather than autonomous, living sculptures in which form and content inextricably fuse.
Moxie moves mountains, and in a time when many of us are exhausted by celebrity influencing and mindless idol worship, Paltrow has maintained her enigmatic pull.
From Salon
The elder Cannon covered Reagan’s two-term presidency in the 1980s, but his relationship with the enigmatic Republican leader went back to the 1960s, when Reagan moved from acting to politics.
From Los Angeles Times
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.
