Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Pertaining to an enigma.
  • adjective Alternate of enigmatic.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective not clear to the understanding

Etymologies

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Examples

  • He refers to a method which he calls the enigmatical, which has an affinity with it,

    The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded Delia Bacon 1835

  • England, she hoped to recover for herself and for him; and, in later years, Sir Ralph could still recall the enigmatical words in which his mother had (possibly with the idea that the rhyme might, as it did, cling to his childish memory) spoken to him of the hidden treasure.

    Fifty-Two Stories For Girls 1888

  • But these are not so numerous, nor placed in such a way as to obscure the sense, and make it allegorical or enigmatical, which is the kind of expression properly called figurative.

    On Christian Doctrine, in Four Books Saint Augustine 1887

  • Just as in the case of the relationship between collective ownership and human degeneration, which seemed so "enigmatical" to this same Baron Garofalo -- and although he has not offered his gratitude for the solution of this enigma to the socialist Oedipus who explained it to him -- here also, in the case of this other enigma, the explanation is very simple.

    Socialism and Modern Science (Darwin, Spencer, Marx) Enrico Ferri 1894

  • It was no affair of theirs that the enigmatical white men should be out trying to kill each other, and whatever interest in the proceedings might be theirs they were careful to conceal it from Sheldon.

    Chapter 27 2010

  • What was the use of trying to understand this vastly complicated and enigmatical world, especially when one was married to a nagging woman?

    THE FEATHERS OF THE SUN 2010

  • He leaves one at the most interesting point with an enigmatical reference to a man of a bygone age.

    CHAPTER 12 2010

  • It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the following enigmatical notices:

    Sole Music 2010

  • The singular and mystic forms of initiation, the system of enigmatical phrases, the use of the signs and symbols of recognition, may probably be ascribed to the period when the whole system was united to the worship of the Deities of Vengeance, and when the sentence was promulgated by the Doomsmen, assembled, like the Asi of old, before the altars of Thor or Woden.

    Anne of Geierstein 2008

  • Finally, this carpenter found, still in the same enclosure, a third paper on which was written in pencil, but very legibly, this sort of enigmatical list: —

    Les Miserables 2008

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