Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One that is puzzling, ambiguous, or inexplicable.
- noun A perplexing speech or text; a riddle.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A dark saying or representation, in which some known thing is concealed under obscure words or forms; a question, saying, figure, or design containing a hidden meaning which is proposed for discovery; a riddle.
- noun Anything inexplicable to an observer, such as the means by which something is effected, the motive for a course of conduct, the cause of a phenomenon, etc.: as, how it was done is an enigma; his conduct is to me an enigma.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A dark, obscure, or inexplicable saying; a riddle; a statement, the hidden meaning of which is to be discovered or guessed.
- noun An action, mode of action, or thing, which cannot be satisfactorily explained; a puzzle.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Something
puzzling ,mysterious orinexplicable . - noun A
riddle , or a difficultproblem .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a difficult problem
- noun something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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Suffice it to say here that this triple enigma is as comforting as wine and open as an English fireside; that this thing that bewilders the intellect utterly quiets the heart: but out of the desert, from the dry places and, the dreadful suns, come the cruel children of the lonely God; the real Unitarians who with scimitar in hand have laid waste the world.
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Nathan Lee in the Voice: See Los Muertos with virgin eyes; this cool-headed enigma is best approached cold, ignorant of everything but the title.
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The C-value enigma is real, and there is a lot of research going on right now investigating it.
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In fact, this juxtaposition, this enigma, is the theme of this show.
Friday at the Factory on Fifth johnny_mango 2005
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The enigma is so persistentand has been so central to politically-intended art and criticismthat one begins to understand the paradox of the orthodox Marxian critic
Sociopolitical (i.e., _Romantic_) Difficulty in Modern Poetry and Aesthetics 2003
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As we will see this pre-containment of narrative enigma is not only important to the hegemonic effects of the opera, but also to the ideological centrality of the set design.
Through Colonial Spectacles: the Irish Vizier and the Female-Knight in James Cobb 2000
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For Christians this enigma is best summed up in a well-known phrase -- "Whose service is perfect freedom."
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An introductory brief description in enigma of the destruction by fire and sword, detailed more explicitly in Eze 21: 1-32.
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Such an enigma is man -- born to perish -- when he wars, as I do, against the established laws of his nature.
The Mortal Immortal 1834
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This phenomenon highlights the short versus long term enigma that blesses or curses recreational gamblers, and some professionals, too.
CasinoCityTimes.com 2009
darlingenigma commented on the word enigma
He called me an Enigma and I laughed. It means, "One that is puzzling, ambiguous, or inexplicable. A perplexing speech or text; a riddle." Maybe in the sense that I cannot feel, speak in metaphors, and dream while awake. Hah... maybe he's right.
June 29, 2009