mystification

M3Y4S1T1I1F4I1C3A1T1I1O1N1

noun

The act of mystifying or the condition of being mystified.

UncommonScrabble 23

Meanings

nounmystification (countable and uncountable, plural mystifications)

plural mystifications

  1. countableuncountableThe act of mystifying or the condition of being mystified.

    For a structuralist like Edmund Leach, the structure is the meaning. Genesis, for example, is about incest taboos; all the rest is noise and mystification.

    1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light:Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, page 12
    1 more example

    But soon one notices, first in ones and twos, and then in larger groups, men who are very much alive at this hour in the morning, the sorters for the Caledonian, and Edinburgh sections of the "Down Special"; mail is piled high on the platforms, and the postal men glance occasionally towards the platform intermediate signals. By this time the calling-on arm is pulled off, and a few minutes later in comes the train, unannounced by the loud-speakers, to the mystification of many travellers.

    1948 May and June, O. S. Nock, “Scottish Night Mails of the L.M.S.R.—3”, in Railway Magazine, page 157
  2. countableuncountableA mystifying thing.

Synonyms & antonyms

nounconfusion resulting from failure to understand

Broader
confusionmental confusionconfusedness

nounthe activity of obscuring people's understanding, leaving them baffled or bewildered

Broader

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Frenchmystification
  2. Englishmystification

From French mystification.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Finnish kummastuminen, hämmentyminen
  • kummastuminenact of being mystified
  • hämmentyminenact of being mystified
  • mystifikaatioact of being mystified
German Verblüffung
  • Verblüffungact of being mystified
Russian мистифика́ция
  • мистифика́ция (mistifikácija)act of being mystified
Cite this entry
APA

mystification. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mystification

MLA

“mystification.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mystification. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mystification,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mystification.

Source: mystification on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.