enigma
/ɪˈnɪɡmə/noun
enigma is spelled E-N-I-G-M-A: 6 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,209th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, enigma means “Something or someone puzzling, mysterious or inexplicable” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of enigma is enigmas or enigmata.
How many letters and syllables are in enigma?
| Letters | 6: E-N-I-G-M-A |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.7 times per million words; the 21,209th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is enigma?
Enigma appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,209th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce enigma?
- /ɪˈnɪɡmə/
- /əˈnɪɡmə/
Enigma has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-enigma.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with enigma?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as enigma.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: ingame, imagen, gamine.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of enigma
- enigmas plural
- enigmata plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does enigma mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Something or someone puzzling, mysterious or inexplicable.
- 2
A riddle, or a difficult problem.
- 3
Riddles and puzzles, collectively.
- 4
Mysteriousness; obscurity; a lack of clarity.
- 5
A style of literature characterized by obscurity and hints of transcendental meaning.
- 6
Alternative letter-case form of Enigma.
- 7
A protein with three LIM domains (a conserved cysteine- and histidine-rich structure of two adjacent zinc fingers) at the C terminus that regulates protein phosphorylation.
- 8
The Talaud kingfisher, Todiramphus enigma.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Enigma in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | énigme |
| German | Rätsel, Mysterium, Enigma , Knobelei, Rateaufgabe |
| Portuguese | enigma, mistério |
| Spanish | enigma |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does enigma come from?
From Latin aenigma (“riddle”), being derived itself from the Ancient Greek verbal noun αἴνιγμα (aínigma, “dark saying, speaking in riddles”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).