What's the difference between inscrutable and mysterious?

Inscrutable


Definition:

  • (a.) Unsearchable; incapable of being searched into and understood by inquiry or study; impossible or difficult to be explained or accounted for satisfactorily; obscure; incomprehensible; as, an inscrutable design or event.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A man named Moreno Facebook Twitter Pinterest Italy's players give chase to an inscrutable Byron Moreno, whose relationship with the country was only just beginning.
  • (2) It's hard to think of an artist who has remained quite so inscrutable while releasing quite so much music.
  • (3) Angry demonstrators have noted that Putin's tears are in stark contrast to his usually inscrutable, and even callous-seeming, behaviour on other big public occasions.
  • (4) 10.40am: Meanwhile this from the Guardian's football correspondent Kevin McCarra Capello's inscrutable when you try to work out his thoughts on team selection.
  • (5) The reign of Pius XII began in the month of Czechoslovakia's rape and ran its course through the terrible years of war and the inscrutable years of uncertain peace and technical revolution which followed.
  • (6) At the booth in between the never-was of Windsor and the has-been of Detroit, the officer I happened to draw had a gruff belly and the mysterious air of intentional inscrutability, like a troll under a bridge in a fairytale.
  • (7) On previous visits, the city had presented a rather inscrutable face.
  • (8) The words “power front row” conjure images of an inscrutable Anna Wintour, but in 2014 there are a lot of globally important front rows she doesn’t sit on.
  • (9) China’s anti-hegemonic aim, expressed in almost inscrutable prose, is to secure “tolerance among civilisations” and respect for the “modes of development chosen by different countries”.
  • (10) It is rather about the abuses of power elites, in government, academia, media, the judiciary and so forth, whose agendas are often opaque even to locals, and all the more inscrutable to unsuspecting foreigners.
  • (11) The camera cuts to Algeria manager Vahid Halilhodzic, who is sitting on his bench looking most inscrutable.
  • (12) The former Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, up in the crowd, looked inscrutable but he surely approved.
  • (13) What they have in common is a tendency towards pragmatism, the ruthlessness common in national leaders and degrees of inscrutability which make it difficult to gauge where they will bend and where they will refuse to compromise.
  • (14) Another was the sight of the Queen, with trademark inscrutable expression, listening politely in the Radio 1 Live Lounge to a performance by singer Danny O'Donoghue, of the BBC talent show The Voice, and his band the Script, as they sang a cover version of David Bowie's song Heroes.
  • (15) The inscrutability of Garland – along with widespread accolades even from many conservatives – likely made him a particularly appealing candidate to Obama, as he challenges Republicans to lift their commitment to blocking any nominee to the supreme court during an election year.
  • (16) Comey entered the room at 10.02am to a chorus of clicking cameras, shook hands with chairman Richard Burr and sat behind a table, staring ahead inscrutably, his hands pressed together.
  • (17) There are campaign photographs of him, emerging from a motorcade in inscrutable shades, that ooze JFK panache.
  • (18) Opacity creates ample opportunities to hide anti-competitive, discriminatory, or simply careless conduct behind a veil of technical inscrutability.
  • (19) Exactly when and why this happened is uncertain, since Hill was always notoriously inscrutable about discussing his personal life.
  • (20) Its workings are inscrutable – near the end of this novel, Zakalwe is commanded to lose a war that he has been rather brilliantly winning on behalf of the Hegemonarchy, and he rather regretfully complies.

Mysterious


Definition:

  • (a.) Of or pertaining to mystery; containing a mystery; difficult or impossible to understand; obscure not revealed or explained; enigmatical; incomprehensible.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Ofcom will conduct research, such as mystery shopping, to assess the transparency of contractual information given to customers by providers at the point of sale".
  • (2) Totò was a legend in the Vesuvian city – a comedian of genius; poignant, mysterious.
  • (3) And that ancient Basque cultural gem – the mysterious language with its odd Xs, Ks and Ts – will be honoured at every turn in a city where it was forbidden by Franco.
  • (4) The etiology of the panvasculitis still remains a mystery.
  • (5) Meeting after meeting during 2011 to try to hammer out agreements about the basic shape of the Egyptian constitution – meetings that always mysteriously collapsed.
  • (6) Director Gareth Edwards , who made Godzilla, introduced a tantalizing concept reel to preview the mysterious film, which is part of a series of films exploring other stories outside of the core Star Wars saga.
  • (7) In EastEnders , the mystery surrounding the identity of Kat's secret squeeze continues amid the grinding of narrative levers and the death rattle of overflogged script-horses.
  • (8) The exact purpose of the complex is a mystery, though it is clearly ancient.
  • (9) Of course, the great British countryside was never as twee as that – a point made forcibly by the second album from mysterious electronic collective Hacker Farm .
  • (10) Askap will also help astronomers investigate one of the greatest mysteries of the universe: dark energy.
  • (11) Dickens's last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend , has a mysterious hero, John Rokesmith, who turns out to be someone different from the person we were told he was.
  • (12) Where once Gaga was mysterious and her music unavoidable, the mystique has evaporated and the music easy to miss.
  • (13) "How these union bosses get elected, how they raise money, how they disperse money is a complete and utter mystery.
  • (14) Despite extensive research, the aetiology of this infectious disease which affects mainly infants and young children remains mysterious.
  • (15) Death in utero (or immediately following birth) of children of diabetic mothers remains rather mysterious.
  • (16) Now trapped in an occupied city, she takes on a job as a housekeeper to mysterious bachelor Gabriel Ortega.
  • (17) In response to a question from the host, Jake Tapper, about allegations that the Russian ambassador “is a spy”, Rubio said: “It is not a mystery to anyone that virtually every embassy in Washington DC has some intelligence component associated with it.” Fact check: what did Trump's tweets about Obama's 'wiretaps' mean?
  • (18) Since then, his whereabouts have been a mystery, but this week his brother told Associated Press that he had received new and disturbing information from one of the policemen who took Gao away.
  • (19) Yet elsewhere in Syria, the strikes against Isis opened what US officials indicate as an opportunity to strike a mysterious al-Qaida cell in Syria believed to have been in the advanced stages for bomb attacks against US or western targets.
  • (20) How Balls achieves his £1.2bn from a mansion tax is a mystery.