Enigma
name, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Something or someone puzzling, mysterious or inexplicable. countable, uncountable
"I was, and still am, an enigma to myself."
- 2 something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained wordnet
- 3 A riddle, or a difficult problem. countable, uncountable
"Some enigma, some riddle: come, thy l'envoy, begin."
- 4 a difficult problem wordnet
- 5 Riddles and puzzles, collectively. countable, uncountable
"From the beginning, readers of The Enigma of Arrival are likely to feel surrounded by enigma and puzzle."
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- 6 Mysteriousness; obscurity; a lack of clarity. countable, uncountable
"In those halcyon days I believed that the source of enigma was stupidity ."
- 7 A style of literature characterized by obscurity and hints of transcendental meaning. countable, uncountable
"But in a sense it is probably close to this book— a series of juxtaposed splinters of meaning, which perhaps once in ten million times will come out as a piece of interpretable prose, with the black pieces intervening, and possibly one could look at this as a one-in-ten million exercise in enigma perhaps meaning something."
- 8 Alternative letter-case form of Enigma. alt-of, countable, uncountable
"This U-boat consistently used Norddeich or Kootwijk frequencies for her shadowing reports, all of which were in enigma."
- 9 A protein with three LIM domains (a conserved cysteine- and histidine-rich structure of two adjacent zinc fingers) at the C terminus that regulates protein phosphorylation. countable, uncountable
"Members of this LIM protein family expressed in muscle include muscle LIM protein (MLP), enigma, actinin-associated LIM protein (ALP), cypher, four and a half LIM-only protein FHL/SLIM, and heart LIM protein (HLP)."
- 10 The Talaud kingfisher, Todiramphus enigma. countable, uncountable
"As noted by Fry (1980), if both forms were shown to be resident and breeding on Talaud, enigma must be accorded specific status."
- 11 Any of species of Oedaleonotus enigma of grasshoppers. countable, uncountable
"The principal species involved were the migratory grasshopper, Melanoplus sanguinipes (Fab.); the Packard grasshopper, Melanoplus packardii Scudd.; the clearwinged grasshopper, Camnula pellucida (Scudd.); and the Enigma Oedaleonotus enigma Scudd."
- 12 Any of species of Heliothis enigma of rare moths. countable, uncountable
"Unlike any other species except virescens , the base of the male valve in enigma is slightly expanded and is entirely covered by hair insertions; unlike virescens, the base of the valve is not expanded into a large corema."
- 1 A German device used during World War II to encode strategic messages. historical
Example
More examples"Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."
Etymology
From Latin aenigma (“riddle”), being derived itself from the Ancient Greek verbal noun αἴνιγμα (aínigma, “dark saying, speaking in riddles”).