mystery play
"mystery-play" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mystery play” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A medieval dramatic performance depicting events from Christian scriptures, especially events from the life of Jesus Christ.
Corpus desk
Index EN-mystery-play · mystery play · English
mystery play · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "M" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mystery play |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “mystery play” in English
Rare enough to double-check
mystery play is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for mystery play in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is mystery play, spelled M-Y-S-T-E-R-Y- -P-L-A-Y.
Definition
- 1A medieval dramatic performance depicting events from Christian scriptures, especially events from the life of Jesus Christ.
- 2A similar play depicting events from the life of other gods or goddesses.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how mystery play appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
His [Osiris'] sufferings, his death and his resurrection were enacted year by year in a great mystery-play at Abydos.
We also entered into the mystery plays of Demeter and Persephone, of Psyche and Eros, of Isis and Osiris[.]
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.