SAT Word of the Week: ENIGMA, ENIGMATIC

An enigma is a mystery, a puzzle, or a baffling (confusing) situation.
Enigmatic is an adjective meaning mysterious, puzzling, or baffling.
The Enigma machine was a device the Germans used to encrypt (set into code) messages during World War II. The word is based on the Greek word for riddle or “dark saying.” (A dark saying is one not easily understood or explained.) The sphinx is a symbol commonly used to indicate an enigma.

SAT Word of the Week

Anomaly

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXOXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

An anomaly (noun) is an irregularity, something that doesn’t fit in, like the illustration above of one lonely O in a sea of X’s. The adjective form is anomalous.