ENIGMA • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Enigma

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/ɪnˈɪgmə/ Listen

noun

enigma n. (pl. enigmas)

A dark, obscure, or inexplicable saying; a riddle; a statement, the hidden meaning of which is to be discovered or guessed. "A custom was among the ancients of proposing an enigma at festivals."

An action, mode of action, or thing, which cannot be satisfactorily explained; a puzzle; as, his conduct is an enigma.

See images of 'Enigma'

Etymology of 'Enigma'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Enigma" Quotes from Famous Books

... hover about the enigma of the scarlet letter seemed an innate quality of her being. From the earliest epoch of her conscious life, she had entered upon this as her appointed mission. Hester had often fancied that Providence had a design of justice and retribution, ...

— The Scarlet Letter • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... I turned at his reply, Fixing the silent symbol with my eye, Insistently. "And you consent," I said, "To leave the enigma uninterpreted?" ...

— The Daughter of the Storage - And Other Things in Prose and Verse • William Dean Howells

... convinced that it was this unfortunate attachment, in which for a moment she had felt herself so supremely blest, that was the source of her misfortunes. But then, how had Nisida discovered the secret? This was an enigma defying conjecture; for Francisco was too honorable to reveal his love to his sister, after having so earnestly enjoined Flora herself ...

— Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf • George W. M. Reynolds

... on a very strange subject—it is all an enigma!" said Evelyn, shaking her wise little head with a pretty gravity, half mock, half real. "Ah, if Lord Vargrave should love you—and you—oh, you would love him, and then I should be free, ...

— Alice, or The Mysteries, Book I • Edward Bulwer Lytton

... swallowed in considerable quantities without deleterious result—all the poison that could be extracted from a half dozen of the largest and most virile reptiles was powerless in any way to affect an unfledged bird when poured into its open beak. Chemistry is not only powerless to solve the enigma of its action, and the microscope to detect its presence, but pathology is at fault to explain the reason of its deadly effect; and all that we know is that when introduced even in most minute quantities into an open wound, the blood is dissolved, ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 421, January 26, 1884 • Various

More quotes...