sphinx
5
8.9
- noun
- /sfɪŋks/
:
enigma
- - You're like a sphinx.
Examples
-
One could take her for a sphinx and nothing else.
Fiction book (1996) -
Is she a sphinx, or simply stupid?
-
Unreadable as a Sphinx, he stands there, waiting.
Fiction book (1991) -
Sphinx, what wisdom can you give us in our most clouded hour?
-
Myra watches him, sphinx-eyed, from the other room.
Fiction book (2002) -
That reply was so Sphinx-like, I'm none the wiser.
-
Mr. Stone sits Sphinx-like alongside Lilly's new boarders.
Fiction book (1990) -
The detective found the witness to be a true sphinx, revealing nothing about what he had seen.
-
Her ambiguous expressions made her seem like a sphinx to everyone who tried to understand her motives.
-
In meetings, Mark was often a sphinx, keeping his opinions and suggestions completely to himself.
Synonyms
33
8.1
A person or thing that is mysterious and hard to understand
Antonyms
Compounds
How Mysterious
Surface Forms
Etymology
Sphinx is also used for a person who is hard to read because of the mythic creature that asked riddles and kept a closed face, so calling someone a sphinx suggests they keep their thoughts 'secret'.