enigma

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“
But a further enigma was added to the mystery when a month later Archie Barrow, the younger brother, came to the Records office and made a deed of his undivided share in the Bar-O lands to his brother Hulls.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun One that is puzzling, ambiguous, or inexplicable.
  2. noun A perplexing speech or text; a riddle.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (46)

  • Third is still an enigma, and something about him just doesn't ring true. —  Anime Nano!
  • Fantasy owners all know that Snell is an enigma, and we'll remind you than Rodriguez typically only looks unhittable when he is in Houston. —  Fanball Fantasy Football News - Newsbreakers
  • Butt is an enigma, absolutel brilliant and absolutely shocking all in the same game and sometimes game to game. —  Soccer Blogs - latest posts
  • Into the Antarctic enigma, the puzzle of a place with too few researchers chasing too many climate mysteries, slowly waddles the elephant seal. rss —  Forbes.com: News
  • I would be the first to mock the hapless PhD-toting gradgrinds who torture our language thusly: "Dylan's lyrics construct an author-reader relation posited on the model of an irresolvable enigma which is both the incitement to and the perpetual frustration of readerly desire." —  Boston.com Most Popular
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

riddle ·  paradox ·  puzzle ·  conundrum ·  dilemma ·  inconsistency ·  anachronism ·  muddle ·  anomaly ·  intricacy ·  poser ·  mystery
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin aenigma, from Greek ainigma, from ainissesthai, ainig-, to speak in riddles, from ainos, fable.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also ænigma (and by contraction, corruptly, egma); = French énigme = Spanish Portuguese enigma = Italian enigma, enimma, from Latin ænigma(t-), from Greek αῐνιγμα(τ-), a riddle, from αἰνίσσ, σ1εσθαι, speak in riddles, from αἰ̄νος, a tale, story, fable, saying.
 

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/əˈnɪgmə/
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