mystery
mys·te·ry/ˈmɪs.t(ə.)ɹi/noun
mystery is spelled M-Y-S-T-E-R-Y, 3 syllables: mys·te·ry. The wrong spelling people search most is mistery: about 310 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 28 of all searches for the word. Mystery is a noun meaning “Something secret or unexplainable; an unknown”. The plural of mystery is mysteries.
How many letters and syllables are in mystery?
| Letters | 7: M-Y-S-T-E-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: mys·te·ry |
| In writing | 28 times per million words; the 3,288th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, mistery, about 310 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell mystery?
Mystery is spelled M-Y-S-T-E-R-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 28 of the searches for mystery in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is mystery?
Mystery appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,288th 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 mystery?
- /ˈmɪs.t(ə.)ɹi/
Mystery has 3 syllables, split mys·te·ry in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-mystery.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of mystery
- mysteries plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mystery mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Something secret or unexplainable; an unknown.
The truth behind the events remains a mystery.
- 2
Someone or something with an obscure or puzzling nature.
That man is a mystery.
- 3
An account, story, book, film, or play, often with the theme of crime or murder, with a surprise ending that explains all the strange events that have occurred.
- 4
A mystery play.
- 5
obsoleteA secret or mystical meaning.
[…] and, not knowing the meaning or misterie of her pollicie, forgat no termes of reproche or rigorous rebuke against his chast doughter.
- 6
A religious truth not understandable by the application of human reason alone (without divine aid).
- 7
A sacrament.
- 8
A secret religious celebration, admission to which was usually through initiation.
the Eleusinian mysteries
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mystery in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense something secret or unexplainable:
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 mystery come from?
From Middle English mysterie, from Anglo-Norman misterie (Old French mistere), from Latin mysterium, from Ancient Greek μυστήριον (mustḗrion, “a mystery, a secret, a secret rite”), from μύστης (mústēs, “initiated one”), from μυέω (muéō, “to initiate”), from μύω (múō, “to shut”). Displaced native Old English ġerȳne.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).