Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
mystery (n.)
has many meanings, but they cluster in two groups: (1) things unknown and apparently unknowable or inexplicable, as in religion or the supernatural (We spoke of the mystery of an afterlife); (2) things unknown into which we must be initiated (She promised to introduce me into the mystery of wallpaper hanging). This cluster also involves mysteries that can or ought to be solved. See ENIGMA.
