inscrutableness

1 the quality or state of being impossible to know, understand, or explain it's the sheer inscrutableness of the lady's smile that has tantalized art lovers for centuries Synonyms impenetrability, inscrutability, mysteriousness, numinousness, obscurity, uncanninessRelated Words deepness, profundity; darkness, murkiness, obscurity, shadowiness, vagueness; ambiguity, equivocality, equivocalness; incomprehensibility, unintelligibility, unintelligibleness; inexplicability, inexplicableness; unanswerability; unknowability; abstruseness, abstrusity, esotericism, hermetism, reconditenessNear Antonyms intelligibility, understandability; clarity, obviousness, plainness, self-evidence, straightforwardness, transparency

2 the quality or state of having a veiled or uncertain meaning the inscrutableness of the inscriptions left by the doomed colonists of Roanoke Island has inspired many theories concerning their fate Synonyms ambiguity, ambiguousness, darkness, equivocalness, equivocation, inscrutability, obscurity, murkiness, mysteriousness, nebulosity, nebulousness, obliqueness, obliquity, opacity, opaquenessRelated Words mystery, reconditeness; cloudiness, dimness, faintness, fogginess, fuzziness, haziness, indefiniteness, indistinctness, mistiness, shade, shadow, uncertainty, vagueness; impenetrability, incomprehensibility, incomprehensibleness; circuitousness, circuity, indirectness; deepness, depth, profoundness; abstruseness, abstrusity, complexity, complication, difficulty, obtusenessNear Antonyms comprehensibility, intelligibility, legibility; brightness, distinctness, self-evidence; certainty, surety; definiteness, exactness, explicitness, incision, incisiveness, lucidity, lucidness, perspicuity, perspicuousness; directness, forthrightness, openness, straightforwardness; palpability, tangibility, tangibleness, visibility; readability, readableness; obviousnessAntonyms clarity, clearness, obviousness, plainness