mysteries

Noun

mystery (countable and uncountable, plural mysteries)

1. Something secret or unexplainable; an unknown.
   • The truth behind the events remains a mystery.
2. Someone or something with an obscure or puzzling nature.
   • That man is a mystery.
3. An account, story, book, film, or play, often with the theme of crime or murder, with a surprise ending that explains all the strange events that have occurred.
4. A mystery play.
   • The Moralities displayed something more of art and invention than the Mysteries; in them virtues, vices and qualities were personified, and something like a plot was frequently to be discovered.1862, George Borrow, Wild Wales
5. (obsolete) A secret or mystical meaning.
   • […] and, not knowing the meaning or misterie of her pollicie, forgat no termes of reproche or rigorous rebuke against his chast doughter.1567, Matteo Bandello, Certain Tragical Discourses of Bandello, tr. Geffraie Fenton
6. A religious truth not understandable by the application of human reason alone (without divine aid).
   • 1744 (first printed), Jonathan Swift, A Sermon on the Trinity
     If God should please to reveal unto us this great mystery of the Trinity, or some other mysteries in our holy religion, we should not be able to understand them, unless he would bestow on us some new faculties of the mind.

See all 10 meanings of mystery