adjective [in-screw-ta-ble]

FULL DEFINITION

-not readily investigated, interpreted, or understood

SYNONYMS: arcane, cryptic, deep, enigmatic, impenetrable, mysterious, mystic, occult, uncanny

ANTONYMS: accessible, clear, nonambiguous, obvious, plain, unambiguous, unequivocal

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Examples:

-As usual, the old woman had a guarded, inscrutable expression.

-We stumbled across several inscrutable poems in the museum.

Did you know? You may have to scrutinize this word closely in order to speculate as to its origins, but there is at least one clue in this sentence. Inscrutable derives from the Late Latin adjective inscrutabilis, which can be traced back to the verb scrutari, meaning "to search or to examine." "Scrutari" is also the source of the English words "scrutinize" and "scrutiny."