How to spell mystery

hear itmys·ter·y/'mɪstəri/nounPrefixes and work

What it means: Something that is difficult to understand or explain.

In a sentence: The lost puppy was a mystery that the children wanted to solve.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as mytery or mistery.

Same family: mysterious, mysteriously, mystic, mystical, mystify. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Mystery” comes from the Greek word “mysterion,” meaning a secret rite or hidden thing. It originally had a religious sense, connected with secret ceremonies, before becoming a general word for something puzzling or hard to explain.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

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