单词 | cryptic |
释义 | cryptic (once / 5477 pages) adj "White bunny. Moon. Square." Do you understand what that means? Of course not! It's totally cryptic. Cryptic comments or messages are hard to understand because they seem to have a hidden meaning. Cryptic is from Late Latin crypticus, from Greek kryptikos, from kryptos "hidden." This Greek adjective is the source of our English word crypt, referring to a room under a church in which dead people are buried. That might account for why the word cryptic has an eerie tone to it. WORD FAMILYcryptic: cryptical, cryptically USAGE EXAMPLES“Trump and his people need to explain the basis of his cryptic tweet. What does he mean by expand, and at what cost?” Washington Post(Dec 22, 2016) Drenched in Champagne, he looked weirdly natty as he offered a cryptic smile. New York Times(Oct 12, 2016) She shared news of the single with her 82 million Twitter followers, with the cryptic comment: "Z | T | 50". BBC(Dec 09, 2016) 1adj having a secret or hidden meaning cryptic writings Syn cabalistic, cryptical, kabbalistic, qabalistic, sibylline esoteric confined to and understandable by only an enlightened inner circle 2adj of an obscure nature the new insurance policy is written without cryptic or mysterious terms Syn cryptical, deep, inscrutable, mysterious, mystifying incomprehensible, inexplicable incapable of being explained or accounted for 3adj having a puzzling terseness a cryptic note Syn concise expressing much in few words |
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