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Definition: Mystery |
MysteryNoun1. Something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained; "how it got out is a mystery"; "it remains one of nature's secrets". 2. A story about a crime (usually murder) presented as a novel or play or movie. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "mystery" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
Etymology: Mystery \Mys"ter*y\, noun; plural Mysteries. [Old English mistere, Old French mestier, French m['e]tier, Latin ministerium. See Ministry.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Bible | Mystery the calling of the Gentiles into the Christian Church, so designated (Eph. 1:9, 10; 3:8-11; Col. 1:25-27); a truth undiscoverable except by revelation, long hid, now made manifest. The resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15:51), and other doctrines which need to be explained but which cannot be fully understood by finite intelligence (Matt. 13:11; Rom. 11:25; 1 Cor. 13:2); the union between Christ and his people symbolized by the marriage union (Eph. 5:31, 32; comp. 6:19); the seven stars and the seven candlesticks (Rev. 1:20); and the woman clothed in scarlet (17:7), are also in this sense mysteries. The anti-Christian power working in his day is called by the apostle (2 Thess. 2:7) the "mystery of iniquity." Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary. |
Dream Interpretation | To find yourself bewildered by some mysterious event, denotes that strangers will harass you with their troubles and claim your aid. It warns you also of neglected duties, for which you feel much aversion. Business will wind you into unpleasant complications. To find yourself studying the mysteries of creation, denotes that a change will take place in your life, throwing you into a higher atmosphere of research and learning, and thus advancing you nearer the attainment of true pleasure and fortune. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Literature | Mystery A kind of mediæval drama, the characters and events of which were drawn from sacred history. Mystery or ~~~Mysterium. Mysterium. Said to make up the number 666 referred to in Rev. xvii. 5. This would not be worthy notice, except for the fact that the word "mystery" was, till the time of the Reformation, inscribed on the Pope's mitre. Almost any phrase or long name can be twisted into this number. (See Number Of The Beast.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A branch of crime fiction, detective fiction is the fictional genre centered around an investigation by a detective, usually in the form of the investigation of a murder.A common feature is that the investigator is usually unmarried, with some source of income other than a regular job, and frequently has an assistant, who is asked to make all kinds of apparently irrelevant inquiries, and acts as an audience surrogate for the explanation of the mystery at the end of the story.
Whodunnit?
The most widespread subgenre of the detective novel is the whodunnit (usually spelled whodunit in the US), where great ingenuity is usually exercised in revealing the basic method of the murder in such a manner as to simultaneously conceal it from the readers, until the end of the book, when the method and culprit are revealed.An early archetype of these types of story were the three Auguste Dupin stories of Edgar Allan Poe: The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter, and The Mystery of Marie Roget. Poe's detective stories have been described as ratiocinative tales. In tales such as these, the primary concern of the plot is ascertaining truth, and the usual means of obtaining the truth is through a complex and mysterious process combining intuitive logic, astute observation and perspicacious inference. Oddly enough, the implication here is that the crime itself is secondary to the efforts taken to solve it. The Mystery of Marie Roget is particularly interesting, as it is a scarcely fictionalized analysis of the circumstances around the real-life discovery of the body of a young woman named Mary Rogers, in which Poe expounds his theory of what actually happened. The style of the analysis, with its attention to forensic detail, makes it a precursor of that most famous of all fictional detectives, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, who set the style for many, many others in later years, including pastiches such as August Derleth's Solar Pons.
Another early archetype of the whodunnit is found as a sub-plot in the vast novel Bleak House (1853) by Charles Dickens. The conniving lawyer Tulkinghorn is killed in his office late one night and the crime is investigated by Inspector Bucket of the Metropolitan force. Numerous characters appeared on the staircase leading to Tulkinghorn's office that night, some of them in disguise, and Inspector Bucket must penetrate these mysteries to identify the culprit.
Dickens' protégé, Wilkie Collins (1824-1889), is credited with the first great mystery novel The Woman in White. He is sometimes referred to as the 'grandfather of English detective fiction'. His novel The Moonstone was described by T. S. Eliot as "the first and greatest of English detective novels" and by Dorothy L. Sayers as "probably the very finest detective story ever written". Although technically preceded by Charles Felix's The Notting Hill Mystery (1865), The Moonstone can claim to have established the genre with several classic features of the twentieth-century detective story:
- A country house robbery
- An 'inside job'
- A celebrated investigator
- Bungling local constabulary
- Detective enquiries
- False suspects
- The 'least likely suspect'
- A rudimentary 'locked room' murder
- A reconstruction of the crime
- A final twist in the plot
Police Procedural
Many detective stories have policemen as the main characters. Of course these stories may take many forms, but many authors try to go for a realistic depiction of a policeman's routine. A good deal are whodunnits, in others the criminal is well known and it is a case of getting enough evidence.Some typical features of these are:
- The detective is rarely the first on the crime scene - it will be milling with uniform, paramedics and possibly members of the public.
- Forensic reports - and the wait for them.
- Rules and regulations to follow - or not.
- Suspects arrested and kept in custody - sometimes wrongly.
- Pressure from senior officers to show progress.
- A large investigating team - two, three or four main characters, plus other officers to order about.
- Pubs - places to discuss or think about the case-especially in the Inspector Morse mysteries.
- Informants - to lean on.
- Political pressure when the suspects are prominent figures
- Internal hostility from comrades when the suspects are fellow police officers
- Pressure from the media (tv, newspapers) to come up with an answer
- Interesting and unusual cars driven by the principal detective
Other subgenres
There is also a subgenre of historical detectives. See historical whodunnit for an overview.
Famous fictional detectives
The full list of fictional detectives would be immense. The format is well suited to dramatic presentation, and so there are also many television and film detectives, besides those appearing in adaptations of novels in this genre. Fictional detectives generally fall within one of four domains:Notable fictional detectives and their creators include:
- the amateur or dilettante detective (Marple);
- the private investigator (Holmes, Marlowe, Spade, Rockford);
- the police detective (Ironside, Kojak, Morse);
- more recently, the medical examiner, criminal psychologist, forensic evidence expert or other specialists (Scarpetta, Quincy, Cracker, CSI).
- Amateurs:
- Albert Campion - Margery Allingham
- Father Brown - G. K. Chesterton
- Kinky Friedman - Kinky Friedman
- Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
- Simon Templar aka "The Saint" - Leslie Charteris
- Philip Trent - E.C. Bentley
- Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen - Jacques Futrelle
- Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
- Nero Wolfe - Rex Stout
- Donald Lam - Erle Stanley Gardner
- Kate Fansler - Amanda Cross
- Private eyes:
- Mike Hammer - Mickey Spillane
- Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Philip Marlowe - Raymond Chandler
- Laura Principal - Michelle Spring
- Ellery Queen
- Sam Spade - Dashiell Hammett
- The Continental Op (he never reveals his name, but he's an operative for the Continental Detective Agency) - Dashiell Hammett
- Police detectives:
- Roderick Alleyn - Ngaio Marsh
- Martin Beck - Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
- Harry Bosch - Michael Connelly
- Maigret - Georges Simenon
- Inspector Morse - Colin Dexter
- Hercule Poirot (note - later became a private eye) - Agatha Christie
- Inspector Rebus - Ian Rankin
- Dick Tracy - Chester Gould
- Inspector Wexford - Ruth Rendell
- The Amsterdam Cops (note - later became private eyes) - Janwillem van de Wetering
- Medical examiners, etc.:
- Dr. Temperance Brennan - Kathy Reichs
- Dr. Kay Scarpetta - Patricia Cornwell
- 'Fitz' - Cracker - Jimmy McGovern
- Dr Jane Halifax -
Other notable authors in this genre include:
- Others:
- Perry Mason (lawyer) - Erle Stanley Gardner
- And for younger readers:
- Encyclopedia Brown - Donald J. Sobol
- The Hardy Boys - Franklin W. Dixon
- Nancy Drew - Carolyn Keene
- The Famous Five and The Secret Seven - Enid Blyton
- The Three Investigators - Robert Arthur
- Historical:
- Marcus Didius Falco (the Roman Empire of the 1st century A.D.) - Lindsey Davis
- Brother William of Baskerville in The Name of the Rose (1327) - Umberto Eco
- Judge Dee (18th century China) - Robert van Gulik
- Brother Cadfael (11th century England and Wales) - Ellis Peters
- Gordianus the Finder in the Roma sub rosa series (the Roman Republic of the 1st century B.C.) - Steven Saylor
- Leigh Brackett
- Alan Gordon
- Jack Vance
Books
- Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel - A History by Julian Symons ISBN 0571094651
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Detective fiction."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
This is a disambiguation page; that is, one that just points to other pages that might otherwise have the same name. If you followed a link here, you might want to go back and fix that link to point to the appropriate specific page.
- In modern colloquial English, a mystery is a work of detective fiction.
- Also in modern colloquial English, a mystery is something which is unknown.
- Originally mystery was a religious term. A mystery was a rite into which only the initiated were admitted. See in particular the article on mystery religion. In Eastern Christianity, and to a lesser extent in Catholicism, the seven sacraments are sometimes called "mysteries"; that nomenclature is perhaps inherited from ancient Greek religions.
- Another sense of the word mystery is defined by the Catholic Encyclopedia as "a supernatural truth ... that of its very nature lies above the finite intelligence".
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mystery."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A mystery religion is a religion whose beliefs, practices, and true nature, are revealed only to those who have been initiated into its secrets. Common components of these mystery cults (Latin 'mystai') included sacred symbols and rites with magical efficacy, purifications, asceticism, baptisms and sacraments. The highest promise of the mystai was a happy afterlife through salvation, which was conferred by the perennial and redemptive death of a "dying-and-rising" god and participation in a cult's mysteries. Initiation into the mysteries of a deity was divided into three stages through which an adherent had to ascend to obtain knowledge of the higher mysteries of a particular cult. The Hellenised world was filled with such mystery cults. in Athens alone it has been estimated that the largest number of mystai at one point in time reached six hundred. Indeed, those particularly moved by religil or religious zeal were at liberty to engage themselves in the mysteries of any number of deities at any given time, as the mystai were in a certain measure bound up with syncretism. Lucius Apuleius, writing in the second century C.E., sought to express his ultimate piety by revealing in a letter that he was an initiate (mystes) of "almost all of the Greek mysteries" available to him, revealing the open and tolerant nature between such cults. Many scholars have put this kind of religious fluidity down to the fact that the pagan mystai of antiquity were so highly syncretised that they taught much the same theologies, regardless of their respective deities.Examples of mystery religions no longer practiced:
Examples of current mystery religions:
- The Eleusinian mysteries
- Gnosticism
- Pythagoreanism
- The Cult of Isis
- Mithraism
- The Druze religion
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons)
- Scientology
- Santeria
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mystery religion."
Synonyms: MysterySynonyms: closed book (n), enigma (n), mystery story (n), secret (n), whodunit (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Business | Vocation, calling, profession, cloth, faculty; industry, art; industrial arts; craft, mystery, handicraft; trade; (commerce). |
Concealment | Reticence; reserve; mental reserve, reservation; arriere pensee, suppression, evasion, white lie, misprision; silence; (taciturnity); suppression of truth; underhand dealing; closeness, secretiveness; Adjective: mystery. |
Behind the veil; beyond mortal ken, beyond the grave, beyond the veil; hid from mortal vision; into the eternal secret, into the realms supersensible, into the supreme mystery. | |
Inactivity | Phrase: the eyes begin to draw straws; "bankrupt of life yet prodigal of ease"; " better years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay"; "idly busy rolls their world away "; "the mystery of folded sleep"; "the timely dew of sleep"; "thou driftest gently down the tides of sleep"; "tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep". |
Latency Implication | Noun: {ant. } latency, inexpression; hidden meaning, occult meaning; occultness, mystery, cabala, anagoge; silence; (taciturnity); concealment; more than meets the eye, more than meets the ear; Delphic oracle; le dessous des cartes, undercurrent. |
Manifestation | Verb: make manifest, render manifest; Adjective: bring forth, bring forward, bring to the front, bring into view; give notice; express; represent, set forth, exhibit; show, show up; expose; produce; hold up to view, expose to view; set before one, place before one, lay before one, one's eyes; tell to one's face; trot out, put through one's paces, bring to light, display, demonstrate, unroll; lay open; draw out, bring out; bring out in strong relief; call into notice, bring into notice; hold up the mirror; wear one's heart upon his sleeve; show one's face, show one's colors; manifest oneself; speak out; make no mystery, make no secret of; unfurl the flag; proclaim; (publish). |
Secret | Noun: secret; dead secret, profound secret; arcanum, mystery; latency; Asian mystery; sealed book, secrets of the prison house; le desous des cartes. |
The Drama | Play, drama, stage play, piece, five-act play, tragedy, comedy, opera, vaudeville, comedietta, lever de rideau, interlude, afterpiece, exode, farce, divertissement, extravaganza, burletta, harlequinade, pantomime, burlesque, opera bouffe, ballet, spectacle, masque, drame comedie drame; melodrama, melodrame; comidie larmoyante, sensation drama; tragicomedy, farcical-comedy; monodrame monologue;duologue trilogy; charade, proverbs; mystery, miracle play; musical, musical comedy. |
Theology | Noun: theology (natural and revealed); theogony, theosophy; divinity; hagiology, hagiography; Caucasian mystery; monotheism; religion; religious persuasion, religious sect, religious denomination; creed; (belief); article of faith, declaration of faith, profession of faith, confession of faith. |
Unintelligibility | Obscure, dark, muddy, clear as mud, seen through a mist, dim, nebulous, shrouded in mystery; opaque, dense; undiscernible; (invisible); misty; (opaque); hidden; latent. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Mystery |
| English words defined with "mystery": amaze ♦ baffle, beat, bewilder ♦ demystify, dumbfound ♦ embellishment, embroidery, Esotery ♦ flummox ♦ get, Gothic, gravel ♦ miracle play, Mistery, Mysteries, Mysteriousness, Mysterize, mystify ♦ nonplus ♦ Passion play, perplex, puzzle ♦ sitting, stupefy, stupify ♦ Unriddle, Unwonder. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "mystery": ALL THE CRACK ♦ B1FF, Boz ♦ Cocqcigrues, CRISPIN ♦ GHOUL ♦ HOLMES ♦ Ignatius Loyola ♦ Les Anguilles de Melun, Long Words ♦ Polixenes, Pyramid ♦ redemption, Re-demption, Rodolpho, Ronald ♦ SPOOKER, Symbols of Saints ♦ Teeth, THE CRACK, the X that can be Y is not the true X, theosophy. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "mystery": Mysteriarch. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Hmmmmm, it's a mystery. Were you watching Spanktravision (Tommy Boy; writing credit: Bonnie Turner and Terry Turner.) There's no mystery to the street, no arch criminal behind it all. It if you find a body and you think his brother did it, you're gonna find out you're right (The Usual Suspects; writing credit: Christopher McQuarrie) But instead of dysfunction -- now here's the mystery, George (Phenomenon; writing credit: Gerald Di Pego) A mystery of open questions (Lola rennt; writing credit: Tom Tykwer) A woman's shoulders are the front lines of her mystique, and her neck, if she's alive, has all the mystery of a border town (The Devil's Advocate; writing credit: Tony Gilroy and Jonathan Lemkin. Based on the novel by Andrew Neiderman.) | |
Lyrics | You're building a mystery (Building A Mystery; performing artist: Sarah McLachlan) And how you got me blind is still a mystery (As Long As You Love Me; performing artist: Backstreet Boys) With the mystery tramp, but now you realize (Like a Rolling Stone; performing artist: Bob Dylan) A little mystery to figure out (Something To Talk About; performing artist: Bonnie Raitt) And baby it's no mystery why I surrender (Ain't Nothing 'Bout You; performing artist: Brooks & Dunn) | |
Clever | The past is history. Tomorrow's a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why we call it the present. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Charlie Brown It's a Mystery (1974) The Magical Mystery Trip Through Little Red's Head (1974) Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery (1973) I Love a Mystery (1973) Wide World of Mystery (1973) | |
Song Titles | Building A Mystery (performing artist: Sarah McLachlan) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Shown is a technician in a white lab coat reading a printout from a computer. The new technology today helps physicians in their research attempts to store and retrieve the vast amounts of data needed to solve the mystery of cancer. In this case the technician is performing a step in the analysis of an estrogen receptor assay. Results will tell whether removal of ovaries will be necessary. Credit: Linda Bartlett (photographer). |  | Astronomers using the Hubble telescope have solved a 20-year-old mystery by showing that a ... Credit: NASA. |
 | NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has helped solve a two-decade-old cosmic mystery by showing ... Credit: NASA. |  | "Mystery Machine". |
 | A long-standing mystery about the molecular structure of casein-the main protein group in milk-has been solved. the new information is helping cheese producers develop more effective and reliable processing methods. ARS scientists learned that, at the molecular level, casein is truly unique. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Scott Bauer.. |  | Photographed circa 1916-1917. This boat was given the Navy registry number SP-16 in 1917, but was not taken over for Naval service. She has been confused in some sources with another motor boat of the same name, which became USS Mystery (SP-428). Credit: NAVY. |
 | Mystery of Babylon. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Uncle, if you'll come across I'll solve the mystery for you!. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | The mystery of the missing 13 billion dollars. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | The Norman Film M'F'G Co. presents "the crimson skull" Baffling western mystery photoplay / / Ritchey Lith. Corp. N.Y. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
 | Space mystery style television show excerpt. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Charles Caleb Colton | Mystery is not profoundness. |
Charles Darwin | The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic. |
Charles Dickens | A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. |
Elizabeth Barrett Browning | Eve is a twofold mystery. |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | Would you learn the secret of the sea? Only those who brave its dangers, comprehend its mystery! |
Henry Ward Beecher | Now comes the mystery. |
Jules Renard | We spend our lives talking about this mystery. Our life. |
Samuel Johnson | Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off. |
Winston Churchill | I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
John Locke | 1690 | Where the laws cannot be executed, it is all one as if there were no laws; and a government without laws is, I suppose, a mystery in politics, unconceivable to human capacity, and inconsistent with human society. (Second Treatise of Government) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
The Little Prince | Antoine de Saint-Exupery | When a mystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey |
Emma | Austen, Jane | The disguise, equivocation, mystery, so hateful to her to practise, might soon be over |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | However, leaving that mystery to solve itself, or go unsolved for ever, he drove his task onward, with earnest haste and ecstasy |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | What he thought of this dogma or that mystery, are secrets of the interior faith known only in the tomb where souls enter stripped of all externals |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | Every morning he hallowed himself anew in the presence of some holy image or mystery. |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | And because I had some skill in the faculty, I would in gratitude to his Honor let him know the whole mystery and method by which they proceed |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | These lend a pleasing mystery to the bottom |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | The cause of RS remains a mystery. (references) | |
An avid reader, Peggy couldn't put down the new mystery thriller. (references) | ||
As with Ebola virus, the actual animal host for Marburg virus also remains a mystery. (references) | ||
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | THEOSOPHY, n. An ancient faith having all the certitude of religion and all the mystery of science. The modern Theosophist holds, with the Buddhists, that we live an incalculable number of times on this earth, in as many several bodies, because one life is not long enough for our complete spiritual development; that is, a single lifetime does not suffice for us to become as wise and good as we choose to wish to become. To be absolutely wise and good -- that is perfection; and the Theosophist is so keen-sighted as to have observed that everything desirous of improvement eventually attains perfection. Less competent observers are disposed to except cats, which seem neither wiser nor better than they were last year. The greatest and fattest of recent Theosophists was the late Madame Blavatsky, who had no cat. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Laura Schlessinger | I am just perplexed because without having had relationships one wonders how somebody could be in such the mode to want to do such harm. To me, this is a mystery on top of a mystery. |
Tom Daschle | Well, I wish I could tell you how well it's going. I don't know anything that you don't know. At this point, I think that it's wide open. I think we have a lot more questions than we do answers. At this point, I think that it's a mystery. |
William Shatner | I'm consumed, maybe, with the idea of death, the fear and the mystery of it. Much of the work I'm doing now involves the mystery of death, but I'm trying to do it from a comedic point of view. So laughter and grief are two sides of the same coin. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Bill Clinton | 1993-2001 | My fellow citizens, today we celebrate the mystery of American renewal. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Mystery" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.51% of the time. "Mystery" is used about 2,254 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.51% | 2,243 | 3,931 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.49% | 11 | 106,044 |
| Total | 100.00% | 2,254 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes names derived from the word "mystery". | |||
| Name | Gender | Language | Meaning |
| Chorazin | N/A | Biblical | Here is a mystery |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references.
| |||
Expressions using "mystery": be shrouded in mystery ♦ clear a mystery ♦ into the supreme mystery ♦ murder mystery ♦ mystery maker ♦ mystery making ♦ mystery novel ♦ mystery pig disease ♦ mystery play ♦ mystery story ♦ mystery tour ♦ shrouded in mystery ♦ unsolved mystery ♦ wrapped in mystery. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "mystery": mystery-cults, mystery-mechanism, mystery-religions. | |
Ending with "mystery": not-so-mystery, part-mystery. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
mystery shopper | 3,756 | mystery space time | 111 |
mystery | 1,841 | mystery book club | 109 |
mystery and shopping | 1,638 | mystery shopping job | 109 |
unsolved mystery | 770 | mystery online game | 108 |
winchester mystery house | 415 | become a mystery shopper | 104 |
murder mystery | 381 | murder mystery dinner | 101 |
murder mystery game | 329 | murder mystery weekend | 90 |
checker mystery shop | 234 | mystery science theater | 88 |
mystery shop | 228 | mystery story | 83 |
mystery game | 213 | marvel mystery oil | 83 |
mystery book | 212 | mystery man | 82 |
mummy mystery | 189 | mystery shopping company | 81 |
mystery science theater 3000 | 188 | mystery writer | 81 |
mystery guild | 188 | mystery dinner | 81 |
mystery shopper job | 183 | mystery novel | 81 |
mystery spot | 156 | mystery machine | 77 |
unexplained mystery | 151 | ancient mystery | 77 |
murder mystery party | 145 | murder mystery dinner theater | 71 |
mummy mystery through walk | 135 | movie mystery | 68 |
mystery network shopper | 120 | mystery world | 65 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "mystery"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | mister (puzzle, secret), zanat (art, calling, craft, little people, making, metier, profession, trade, vocation), e fshehtë (confidence, secrecy, secret). (various references) | |
Arabic | معضلة (dilemma, enigma, problem, puzzle, riddle), نقابة حرفية, لغز (clue, conundrum, enigma, mystify, mystique, puzzle, puzzlement, quiz, riddle, secret), غموض (ambiguity, darkness, equivocation, fuzziness, haziness, mystification, nebulizer, obscurity, opacity, secret, vagueness, weirdness), سرية (company, darkness, hugger mugger, privacy, secrecy, stealthiness, wrap), سر (breeze, brighten, delight, divert, gladden, gratify, please, pleasure, reserve, satisfy, secret, steer), خفاء (darkness), أحجية (enigma, mystique, puzzle, puzzlement, riddle). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | тайнство (ordinance, sacrament), тайна (arcanum, confidence, dogbane, privacy, secrecy, secret, whisper), гилда (brotherhood, craft, guild), неизвестност (abeyance, obscurity), мистерия (puzzle), занаят (craft, handicraft, job, occupation, profession, skill, trade, vocation), еснаф (craft, philistine), потайност (furtiveness, hugger mugger, reticence, secrecy, slyness), детективски (detective). (various references) | |
Chinese | 神祕 (mysterious), 奥秘 (Mysteries). (various references) | |
Czech | tajemství (secrecy, secret), kult (cult), hádanka (conundrum, enigma, problem, puzzle, puzzlement, riddle). (various references) | |
Danish | mystisk tog (mystery-trip train), mystisk svinesygdom (blue disease, blue ear disease, blue-ear disease of pigs, mysterious pig disease, mysterious swine disease, mystery pig disease, new pig disease, porcine epidemical abortion, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, PRRS, purple ears disease), tog ud i det blaa (mystery-trip train), PRRS (blue disease, blue ear disease, blue-ear disease of pigs, mysterious pig disease, mysterious swine disease, mystery pig disease, new pig disease, porcine epidemical abortion, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, PRRS, purple ears disease), porcint reproduktions-og respirationssyndrom (blue disease, blue ear disease, blue-ear disease of pigs, mysterious pig disease, mysterious swine disease, mystery pig disease, new pig disease, porcine epidemical abortion, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, PRRS, purple ears disease), blaa sygdom (blue disease, blue ear disease, blue-ear disease of pigs, mysterious pig disease, mysterious swine disease, mystery pig disease, new pig disease, porcine epidemical abortion, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, PRRS, purple ears disease), blaa abort (blue disease, blue ear disease, blue-ear disease of pigs, mysterious pig disease, mysterious swine disease, mystery pig disease, new pig disease, porcine epidemical abortion, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, PRRS, purple ears disease). (various references) | |
Dutch | raadsel (enigma, puzzle, riddle), mysterie, geheimenis. (various references) | |
Esperanto | mistero. (various references) | |
Farsi | پیشه (Craft, Function, Occupation, Profession, Pursuit, Trade, Vocation), معما (Conundrum, Crux, Enigma, Problem, Puzzle, Quandary), هنر (Accomplishment, Art, Artifice, Craft), حرفه (Avocation, Career, Metier, Profession, Pursuit, Trade, Vocation), سر (Acme, Apex, Cabal, Chief, Corona, End, Extremity, Pash, Pate, Plug, Point, Ruler, Secret, Thought, Top, Vertex), صنعت (Art, Craft, Industry), رمز (Cipher, Code, Cranny, Crypt, Enigma, Secret, Symbol, Token, Trick), راز (Cabal, Covert, Secret). (various references) | |
Finnish | mysteeri, salaperäisyys (mysteriousness). (various references) | |
French | mystère. (various references) | |
German | Geheimnis (recipe, secret), Mysterium, rätsel (conundrum, enigma, enigmas, problem, puzzle, riddle, riddles). (various references) | |
Greek | μυστήριο (sacrament), αίνιγμα (brain teaser, conundrum, enigma, puzzle, quiz, riddle, tickler). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מסתורין (secret), מסתוריות (weirdness), מסתר (secret, secret place), מסטורין, תעלומ" (enigma, mystique, puzzle, riddle, secret), כבשון (secret), רז (secret). (various references) | |
Hungarian | rejtély (arcana, arcanum, conundrum, riddle, secret). (various references) | |
Indonesian | misteri, kegaiban (mysteriousness), keajaiban (marvel, miracle, oddity, prodigy, remarkableness, wonder). (various references) | |
Italian | mistero (enigma, puzzle, puzzler, secret). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 幽玄 (occult), 心髄 (core, essence, kernel, life blood, quintessence, soul, true meaning). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | おくのて (last resort, left hand, secret, secret skills, trump card, upper hand), ミステリー , ミステリ , し"ずい (core, essence, kernel, life blood, quintessence, soul, true meaning), し"ぴ (carpel, corium, cutis, derma, true or false, trueskin), ひで" (secret, secret formula, urgent or express telegraph), ふしぎ (curiosity, marvel, miracle, strange, wonder), ふかしぎ (10^64, miracle, wonder), ふかかい (baffling, incomprehensible, inexplicable), かい (assembly, association, avail, being in between, buyer, buying, club, concerning oneself with, counter for occurrences, effect, -floor, large, low rank, lower order, mediation, meeting, oar, paddle, party, purchase, result, scull, shell, shellfish, stories, subordinate, the feelings of the people, together, use, wonder, worth), い"び (abstruseness, impurity, obscenity, obscurity), めいきゅう (labyrinth, maze), ゆう'" (finite, limited, occult). (various references) | |
Korean | 비 (Mysteries). (various references) | |
Manx | folliaght (confidence, secrecy, secret, stealthiness). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ysterymay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | mistério (arcanum, riddle, secrecy, secret). (various references) | |
Romanian | mister (arcanum, enigma, pageant, secret), meserie (art, calling, craft, handicraft, job, occupation, trade), meşteşug (art, artifice, craft, craftsmanship, cunning, handicraft, skill, talent, trade, workmanship), tainã (arcanum, hugger mugger, privacy, ration, recess, reticence, secrecy, secret), secret (arcanum, close, confidential, cover, covertly, hidden, hugger mugger, internal, mysterious, occult, private, privy, quiet, reticence, secrecy, secret, secretly, ulterior, underground, undisclosed, unspoken, untold), problemã (case, difficulty, matter, mission, node, point, problem, question, rider, whys), enigmã (conundrum, crux, enigma, puzzle, riddle), breaslã (brotherhood, commonalty, corporation, craft, guild, trade). (various references) | |
Russian | тайна (arcana, arcanum, privacy, secret). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | misterija, zagonetka (conundrum, enigma, puzzle, riddle), tajna (arcanum, secret). (various references) | |
Spanish | misterio (inscrutability, mystification, mystique, riddle). (various references) | |
Swedish | mysterium (enigma, mystification). (various references) | |
Thai | เงื่อนงำ (knot), สิ่งแปลกประหลา", ความลึกลับ (mysteriousness), ศิลปะของการค้าขาย. (various references) | |
Turkish | muamma (conundrum, enigma, problem, puzzle, puzzlement, puzzler, riddle), sır (arcana, arcanum, cabala, cabbala, confidence, enamel, foil, glaze, glazing, hugger mugger, huggermugger, luster, lustre, riddle, secret), hikmet (gnome, profoundness, profundity, reason, the divine wisdom, wisdom), gizem (arcana, arcanum, cabala, cabbala, enigma, secret), esrarengizlik (darkness, eeriness, inscrutability, secrecy), esrar (cabala, cabbala, dope, enigma, grass, hash, hasheesh, hashish, hay, hemp, joint, junk, marihuana, marijuana, mary jane, maryjane, pot, secrets, tea, weed), bilinmeyen (mysterious, obscure, occult, recondite, secret, strange, unbeknown, unbeknownst, unknown, unknown quantity, x). (various references) | |
Turkmen | tilsim (secret), syr (secret). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | таїнство (ordinance, sacrament), та"мниця (arcana, hugger mugger, privity, riddle, secrecy), ти"мничість, містерія. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | truyện trinh thám (thriller), điều thần bí bí mật, điều huyền bí. (various references) | |
Welsh | dirgelwch (secrecy, secret), cyfriniaeth (mysticism). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Sumerian | 3100 BCE-2500 BCE | buzur. (various references) |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | mysterion. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | arcana, arcanis, arcano, arcanum, Caradrina exempta, Caradrina exigua, Laphygma exempta, Laphygma exigua, Laphygma flavimaculata, mysteria, mysterii, mysterio, mysteriorum, mysterium, Spodoptera exempta, Spodoptera exigua. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | Mark Chapter 4, Verse 11 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | Kai elegen autoiV umin dedotai gnwnai to musthrion thV basileiaV tou qeou ekeinoiV de toiV exw en parabolaiV ta panta ginetai |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Et dicebat eis vobis datum est mysterium regni Dei illis autem qui foris sunt in parabolis omnia fiunt |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | And he seide to hem, To you it is youun to knowe the priuete of the kyngdom of God. But to hem that ben with outforth, alle thingis be maad in parablis, that thei seynge se, |
| Renaissance English | 1526 | Tyndale | And he sayde vnto the. To you it is geve to knowe the mistery of the kyngdome of God. But vnto them that are wt out shall all thinges be done in similitudes: |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | And he said to them, To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but to them that are without, all these things are done in parables: |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | And he said to them, To you is given the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things are given in the form of stories; |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Mark Chapter 4, Verse 11 |
| Cebuano | Ug siya miingon kanila, "Kaninyo gihatag ang tinagoan mahitungod sa gingharian sa Dios; apan kanila nga anaa sa gawas, ang tanan ipaagig mga sambingay; |
| Chinese | 耶 穌 對 他 們 說 、 神 國 的 奧 秘 、 只 叫 們 知 " 、 若 是 對 外 人 講 、 凡 事 就 " " 喻 ． |
| Croatian | I govoraše im: "Vama je dano otajstvo kraljevstva Božjega, a onima vani sve biva u prispodobama: |
| Danish | Og han sagde til dem: "Eder er Guds Riges Hemmelighed givet; men dem, som ere udenfor, meddeles alt ved Lignelser, |
| Dutch | En Hij zeide tot hen: Het is u gegeven te verstaan de verborgenheid van het Koninkrijk Gods; maar dengenen, die buiten zijn, geschieden al deze dingen door gelijkenissen; |
| Finnish | Niin hän sanoi heille: "Teille on annettu Jumalan valtakunnan salaisuus, mutta noille ulkopuolella oleville kaikki tulee vertauksissa, |
| French | Il leur dit: C`est vous qu`a été donné le mystère du royaume de Dieu; mais pour ceux qui sont dehors tout se passe en paraboles, |
| Gaelic | Is thuirt e riutha: Thugadh dhuibhse eolas air run -diomhair rioghachd Dhe: ach dhaibhsan, a tha muigh, nithear a h-uile ni ann an dubhfhacail, |
| German | Und er sprach zu ihnen: Euch ist's gegeben, das Geheimnis des Reiches Gottes zu wissen; denen aber draußen widerfährt es alles nur durch Gleichnisse, |
| Hungarian | Õ pedig monda nékik: Néktek adatott, hogy az Isten országának titkát tudjátok, ama kívül levõknek pedig példázatokban adatnak mindenek, |
| Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari | Maka Yesus berkata kepada mereka, "Kalian sudah diberi anugerah untuk mengetahui rahasia tentang bagaimana Allah memerintah. Tetapi orang-orang luar diajar dengan perumpamaan, |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | Maka berkatalah Ia kepada mereka itu, "Kepada kamu diberi karunia mengetahui rahasia kerajaan Allah, tetapi kepada sekalian orang yang di luar itu, diberitahu segala perkara ini dengan perumpamaan, |
| Italian | «A voi è stato confidato il mistero del regno di Dio; a quelli di fuori invece tutto viene esposto in parabole, |
| Maori | Ka mea ia ki a ratou, Kua hoatu ki a koutou te matauranga ki te mea ngaro o te rangatiratanga o te Atua: ki te hunga ia o waho e ra rototia ana nga mea katoa i te kupu whakarite: |
| Norwegian | Og han sa til dem: Eder er Guds rikes hemmelighet gitt, men til hine som er utenfor, sies det alt sammen i lignelser, |
| Rumanian | ,,Vouq,`` le -a zis El, ,,v`a fost dat sq cunoawteyi taina Kmpqrqyiei lui Dumnezeu; dar pentru ceice sknt afarq din numqrul vostru, toate lucrurile sknt knfqyiwate kn pilde; |
| Shuar | Tutai Jesus chichaak "Yuska ni akupeamurin atumin paant nekamtikramattsa wakerutmarme. Antsu Chíkich shuarka aya métek-taku chichamjai Jintintiáwartatui. |
| Spanish | Y él les decía: "A vosotros se os ha dado el misterio del reino de Dios; pero para los que están fuera, todas las cosas están en parábolas, |
| Swahili | Naye akawaambia, "Ninyi mmejaliwa kujua siri ya Utawala wa Mungu, lakini wale walio nje wataambiwa kila kitu kwa mifano, |
| Swedish | Då sade han till dem: "Åt eder är Guds rikes hemlighet given, men åt dem som stå utanför meddelas alltsammans i liknelser, |
| Uma | Na'uli' Yesus: "Owi, Alata'ala ko'ia mpopo'incai manusia' beiwa-i mpai' jadi' Magau' hi dunia'. Aga hewa toe lau, napopo'incai-mokoi tudui' toe. Tapi' ane tauna to bela topetuku' -ku, kutudui' -ra hante lolita rapa', |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Misspellings | |
"Mystery" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Mcsherry, mistere, mistery, mistrey, Mistry, mustery, mycteria, myester, mynster, myotomy, mystai, myster, mystere, mysterey, mysterie, mysterio, Mystero, mysteryu, mystory, Mystre, mystrey, mystry. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "mystery" (pronounced mi"sterē) |
| 5 | -i" s t er ē | history, protohistory. |
| 4 | -s t er ē | blustery, mastery, upholstery. |
| 3 | -t er ē | adultery, alimentary, artery, battery, buttery, complimentary, contradictory, coterie, directory, jittery, documentary, eatery, effrontery, factory, flattery, glittery, introductory, lottery, notary, olfactory, parliamentary, peremptory, perfunctory, pottery, premonitory, rectory, refractory, rotary, rudimentary, satisfactory, sedimentary, splintery, supplementary, testamentary, trajectory, unsatisfactory, valedictory, victory, watery. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-m-r-s-t-y-y" | |
-2 letters: stymy, terms, treys, tyers, tyres. | |
-3 letters: erst, eyry, rems, rest, rets, ryes, stem, stey, stye, term, trey, tyer, tyes, tyre. | |
-4 letters: ems, ers, met, rem, res, ret, rye, ser, set, sty, try, tye, yes, yet. | |
-5 letters: em, er, es, et, me, my, re, ye. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-m-r-s-t-y-y" | |
+1 letter: symmetry. | |
+2 letters: asymmetry. | |
+4 letters: axisymmetry, dissymmetry, hysterotomy, psychometry. | |
+5 letters: embryophytes, hysterectomy, mysteriously, psychrometry. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Sounds | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Historic 11. Quotations: Fiction 12. Quotations: Non-fiction | 13. Quotations: Spoken 14. Quotations: Speeches 15. Usage Frequency 16. Names: Derived from | 17. Expressions 18. Expressions: Internet 19. Translations: Modern 20. Translations: Ancient | 21. Bible Trace 22. Derivations 23. Rhymes 24. Anagrams | 25. Bibliography |
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