Mystification

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Mystification \Mys`ti*fi*ca"tion\, n. [Cf. F. mystification.]
     The act of mystifying, or the state of being mystied; also,
     something designed to, or that does, mystify.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           The reply of Pope seems very much as though he had been


           playing off a mystification on his Grace. --De Quincey.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  mystification
       n 1: confusion resulting from failure to understand [syn: {bewilderment},
             {obfuscation}, {puzzlement}, {befuddlement}, {bafflement},
             {bemusement}]
       2: something designed to mystify or bewilder
       3: the activity of obscuring people's understanding, leaving
          them baffled or bewildered [syn: {obfuscation}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  108 Moby Thesaurus words for "mystification":
     Chinese puzzle, amorphousness, anagoge, anagogics, anthroposophy,
     apparent soundness, burial, burying, cabala, cabalism, casuistry,
     circularity, closed, clouding, college of Laputa, concealedness,
     concealment, corruption, covering, covering up, covertness, dark,
     darkening, darkness, deception, disingenuousness, distortion,
     equivocalness, equivocation, esotericism, esoterics, esoterism,
     esotery, evasive reasoning, fallaciousness, fallacy, fog,
     fogginess, fuzziness, hiddenness, hiding, hocus-pocus,
     indeterminateness, indistinctness, insincerity, interment,
     invisibility, jesuitism, jesuitry, masking, misapplication,
     misdirection, misguidance, misinformation, misinstruction,
     misknowledge, misleading, mist, misteaching, mistiness,
     mumbo jumbo, murk, murkiness, mystery, mysticism, obfuscation,
     obscurantism, obscuration, obscurement, obscurity, occultation,
     occultism, opacity, oversubtlety, perplexity, perversion,
     philosophism, plausibility, plausibleness, putting away,
     rationalization, screening, secrecy, secretion, shapelessness,
     sophism, sophistical reasoning, sophistication, sophistry,
     special pleading, speciosity, specious reasoning, speciousness,
     subterfuge, subtlety, symbolics, symbolism, unclarity, unclearness,
     uncommunicativeness, unplainness, vagueness, vicious circle,
     vicious reasoning, why, yoga, yogeeism, yogism