Word of the Day

: September 12, 2018

enigmatic

adjective en-ig-MAT-ik

What It Means

: of, relating to, or resembling an enigma : mysterious

enigmatic in Context

"The magic of the Mona Lisa's smile is that it seems to react to our gaze. What is she thinking? She smiles back mysteriously. Look again. Her smile seems to flicker. We glance away, and the enigmatic smile lingers in our minds, as it does in the collective mind of humanity." — Walter Isaacson, The Atlantic, November 2017

"The Chapel of the Good Shepherd, also known as the Nevelson Chapel, is the work of Louise Nevelson, a flamboyant New York City sculptor who rose to prominence for her postwar abstract assemblages that turned street detritus into enigmatic works of art." — Jack Balderrama Morley, The Architects Newspaper (archpaper.com), 15 Aug. 2018

Did You Know?

An enigma is a puzzle, a riddle, a mystery. The adjective enigmatic describes what is hard to solve or figure out. An enigmatic person is someone who is a bit mysterious to others. Behind an enigmatic smile are thoughts impossible to guess. The word enigma originally referred not to people or smiles but to words, and specifically to words that formed a riddle or a complicated metaphor that tested one's alertness and cleverness. This meaning is clearly connected to the word's origin. Enigma comes from the Greek word ainissesthai, meaning "to speak in riddles."