Meaning & use

mysterious

adjective·Everyday

Difficult to understand, explain, or identify; strange and puzzling.

See it in a sentence

A mysterious light appeared over the hills every night that summer.

No one could explain the mysterious disappearance of the ship's entire crew.

A note on using this word

Mysterious suggests something intriguing and hard to explain, while 'confusing' more often implies a lack of clarity that isn't necessarily interesting.

Words with a similar meaning

puzzlingenigmatic

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

obviousclear

Make it your own

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