MYSTERY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Mystery

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/mˈɪstəri/ Listen

noun

Mystery n. (pl. mysteries)

A profound secret; something wholly unknown, or something kept cautiously concealed, and therefore exciting curiosity or wonder; something which has not been or can not be explained; hence, specifically, that which is beyond human comprehension. "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery." "If God should please to reveal unto us this great mystery of the Trinity, or some other mysteries in our holy religion, we should not be able to understand them, unless he would bestow on us some new faculties of the mind."

A kind of secret religious celebration, to which none were admitted except those who had been initiated by certain preparatory ceremonies; usually plural; as, the Eleusinian mysteries.

pl. The consecrated elements in the eucharist.

Anything artfully made difficult; an enigma.

Mystery n. (pl. mysteries)

A trade; a handicraft; hence, any business with which one is usually occupied. "Fie upon him, he will discredit our mystery." "And that which is the noblest mystery Brings to reproach and common infamy."

A dramatic representation of a Scriptural subject, often some event in the life of Christ; a dramatic composition of this character; as, the Chester Mysteries, consisting of dramas acted by various craft associations in that city in the early part of the 14th century. ""Mystery plays," so called because acted by craftsmen."

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Etymology of 'Mystery'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Mystery" Quotes from Famous Books

... years are not all fallow. The dark brooding night is as necessary for our life as the garish day. Great crops of wheat that feed the nations grow only where the winter's snow covers all as with a garment. And ever behind the mystery of sleep, and beneath the silence of the snow, Nature ...

— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 5 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard

... could make nothing whatever of the portmanteau and the excursion to the early train, and she got up long before her hour was over, since she found that the more she thought, the more invincible were the objections to any conclusion that she drowningly grasped at. Whatever attack she made on this mystery, the garrison failed to march out and surrender but kept their flag flying, and her conjectures were woefully blasted by the forces of the most elementary reasons. But as the agony of suspense, if no fresh topic of interest intervened, would be frankly ...

— Miss Mapp • Edward Frederic Benson

... through the minds of the two girls as they sat there, and thoughts came which would never have come in daylight. Somehow they felt in the calmness of the night the nearness of God and the presence of the Great Mystery. All the petty little daylight perplexities faded from reality; their souls became serene, while their hearts beat high with ambition and resolve. They had no desire to speak to each other; each was planning out her life on a nobler scale; each ...

— The Campfire Girls on Ellen's Isle - The Trail of the Seven Cedars • Hildegard G. Frey

... buzzards in very light winds and the writer was compelled to confess: "Now, this spiral soaring in steady breezes of 5 to 10 miles per hour which are apparently horizontal, and through which the bird maintains an average speed of about 20 miles an hour, is the mystery to be explained. It is not accounted for, quantitatively, by any of the theories which have been advanced, and it is the one performance which has led some observers to claim that it was done through 'aspiration.' ...

— Flying Machines - Construction and Operation • W.J. Jackman and Thos. H. Russell

... wide as to take in the whole scheme of creation, and all that is implied by them and by their mutual action and reaction. Generally, I would say that in the scheme of a First Cause anything is possible. So long as the inherent forces or tendencies of any one thing are veiled from us we must expect mystery." ...

— The Lair of the White Worm • Bram Stoker

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