谜

• Pinyin: mí
• Hanzi breakdown: 谜 = 讠(speech/word radical) + 迷 (to be lost, confused) — a spoken or written puzzle that causes the listener to lose their way until the answer is revealed

Meaning

Riddle; puzzle; mystery; enigma. Something unknown, unexplained, or intentionally obscured — either a verbal riddle or a broader mystery in life or nature.

Used both for literal riddles (word puzzles, 猜谜) and for broader mysteries (历史之谜 — historical mystery; 生命之谜 — mystery of life). The word evokes curiosity and the challenge of the unknown. In academic and journalistic contexts it often describes unsolved problems or unexplained phenomena.

Examples

1. 宇宙的起源至今仍是困扰科学界的一大谜，各种理论均难以做到自洽完整。 The origin of the universe remains a major mystery that continues to trouble the scientific community, and no theory has yet managed to be fully coherent and complete.
2. 这位艺术家生前几乎不接受任何采访，她的真实内心世界对外界而言始终是一个谜。 The artist rarely gave interviews during her lifetime, so her true inner world remained a mystery to outsiders.
3. 考古学家在遗址中发现了一批刻有未知符号的石板，这些符号的含义至今是个谜。 Archaeologists discovered a set of stone tablets inscribed with unknown symbols at the site, and the meaning of those symbols is still a mystery.

Usage Guide

Context: science, culture, literature, games, history

Tone: curious

Do Say

• 意识的本质是神经科学领域最深刻的谜之一，迄今为止没有任何理论能够完整解释主观体验的产生机制。(The nature of consciousness is one of the deepest enigmas in neuroscience; to date no theory can fully explain the mechanism by which subjective experience arises.)
• 那栋废弃的庄园在当地人眼中一直是个谜，关于它的过去流传着各种各样版本迥异的传说。(That abandoned manor has always been a mystery in the eyes of the locals, with all sorts of very different legends circulating about its past.)

Don't Say

• 将'谜'单独用于形容已经解开或完全透明的事物 — 谜的核心是未知与神秘，事物已有明确答案则应用'问题''课题'等中性词 (Do not use 谜 to describe things already solved or fully transparent — the essence of 谜 is the unknown; for things with clear answers use neutral words like 问题 or 课题)

Origin & History

谜 = 讠(speech/word radical) + 迷 (to be lost/confused). The character combines speech/writing with the sense of being lost — something said that leads the mind into confusion until the answer is found.

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal