mysterious
UK/mɪˈstɪə̯.ɹi.əs//mɪˈstɪɹi.əs/
mysterious adjective: of unknown origin.
Adjective
mysterious (comparative more mysterious, superlative most mysterious)
- Of unknown origin.
- He received a mysterious phone call this morning.
- Synonyms:
- untraceable
- Having unknown qualities.
- Our boss is a mysterious man who hardly ever meets with us.
- God moves in a myſterious way, / His wonders to perform; / He plants his footſteps in the ſea, / And rides upon the ſtorm.1780, William Cowper, “Light Shining out of Darkneſs”, in Twenty-ſix Letters on Religious Subjects […] To which are added Hymns […] , 4th edition, page 252
- Difficult to understand.
- Why he left without saying goodbye is quite mysterious.
- Buttressed by clothes, walls and objects, there was the bourgeois family, the most mysterious institution of the age.1975, Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Capital. 1848-1875, published 1995, page 278
- Synonyms:
- abstruse, Chinese, dense, enigmatic, fathomless, bottomless, Greek, inapprehensible, incognizable, incomprehensible
- Deliberately evasive or enigmatic.
- Stop being mysterious and just tell me what you want.
- Synonyms:
- abstruse, behind the scenes, catlike, backroom, backstairs, stealth, clandestine, cloak-and-dagger, concealed, confidential
mysterious meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
mysterious in Hindi
- of unknown origin
- रहस्यपूर्ण rahasyapūrṇ, गूढ gūḍh
mysterious in Tamil
- திகைப்பூட்டு, புதிரான, விளங்காத
mysterious in Marathi
- रहस्यमय, रहस्यमयी
mysterious in Urdu
- پوشیدہ, پراسرار
More languagesFewer languages
- mysterious in Bengali
- গোপন gōpon
- mysterious in Telugu
- గుహ్యము guhyamu
- mysterious in Malayalam
- ഗൂഢം gūḍhaṁ, നിഗൂഢമായ nigūḍhamāya
- mysterious in Kannada
- ಗುಂಬ
- mysterious in Punjabi
- ਰਹੱਸਮਈ
- mysterious in Gujarati
- રહસ્યમય, રહસ્યમયી
- mysterious in Odia
- ରହସ୍ଯ଼ମଯ଼, ରହସ୍ଯ଼ମଯ଼ୀ
- mysterious in Sanskrit
- गूढ gūḍhá
- mysterious in Tagalog
- katakataka
- mysterious in Arabic
- غَامِض ḡāmiḍ
- mysterious in Malay
- penuh misteri
- mysterious in Indonesian
- misterius
- mysterious in Persian
- مبهم mobham, مرموز marmuz
- mysterious in Thai
- ลี้ลับ lée láp
- mysterious in Vietnamese
- thần bí
Examples of mysterious in a sentence
- I use an echo effect here to make the sound more mysterious.
- I suspect Suzanne and her mysterious friend of being involved in an intrigue.
- I will never touch The Orb, even though its mysterious glow seduces and beguiles.
Synonyms of mysterious
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- Greek
- inapprehensible
- incognizable
- incomprehensible
- ineffable
- inenubilable
- inexplicable
- impenetrable
- insensible
- inscrutable
- insoluble
- insolvable
- nonunderstandable
- obscure
- tenebrose
- thick
- undecipherable
- undiscoverable
- unexplainable
- unfathomable
- ungraspable
- unintelligible
- unknowable
- ununderstandable
- behind the scenes
- catlike
- backroom
- backstairs
- stealth
- clandestine
Antonyms
Forms of mysterious
| comparative | more mysterious |
|---|---|
| superlative | most mysterious |
Origin of mysterious
From Middle English *misterius (implied in misteriusly), probably partly from Middle French mystérieux and partly from Latin mystērium + -ous. By surface analysis, mystery + -ous.
Words formed from mysterious
Words that rhyme with mysterious
Questions about mysterious
- What does mysterious mean?
- Mysterious means of unknown origin.
- What is mysterious in Hindi?
- Mysterious in Hindi is रहस्यपूर्ण (rahasyapūrṇ), गूढ (gūḍh). See Mysterious meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is mysterious?
- Mysterious is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce mysterious?
- Mysterious is pronounced /mɪˈstɪə̯.ɹi.əs/ (UK).
Words near mysterious in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mysterious (page history and authors); mysterious (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mysterious (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mysterious (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); গোপন (Bengali) (page history and authors); గుహ్యము (Telugu) (page history and authors); ഗൂഢം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); mysterious (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mysterious (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mysterious (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mysterious (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-mysterious.ogg.
Cite this entry: “mysterious.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mysterious. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.