Mysteries

How to spell mysteries

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce mysteries

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mysteries mean?

1. nounThings that are difficult or impossible to understand, explain, or identify.

Mysteries in a sentence

• The detective spent years solving the town's coldest mysteries.

• The documentary explored several unsolved mysteries of the deep ocean.

Where does mysteries come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word goes back to the Greek mysterion, which meant a secret rite or hidden teaching known only to those who had been initiated. That noun grew from mystes, 'an initiate', and ultimately from the verb myein, meaning 'to close the eyes or lips', the idea being that the initiated kept their mouths shut about sacred secrets. Latin took it over as mysterium, and it passed into English through Old French in the 1300s, at first in a strongly religious sense before broadening to mean anything puzzling or unexplained. The plural follows the ordinary English rule of changing a final y after a consonant to i and adding -es, which is the main spelling trap here, since the singular ends in a clearly heard -y. The same myein root also lies behind 'myopia', the eye condition, where the link to closing the eyes is even plainer.

How the word is built

• myster- (from Greek mysterion: secret rite)
• -y (noun suffix)
• -es (plural, with y changed to i)