What's the difference between mystery and secrecy?

Mystery


Definition:

  • (a.) A profound secret; something wholly unknown, or something kept cautiously concealed, and therefore exciting curiosity or wonder; something which has not been or can not be explained; hence, specifically, that which is beyond human comprehension.
  • (a.) A kind of secret religious celebration, to which none were admitted except those who had been initiated by certain preparatory ceremonies; -- usually plural; as, the Eleusinian mysteries.
  • (a.) The consecrated elements in the eucharist.
  • (a.) Anything artfully made difficult; an enigma.
  • (n.) A trade; a handicraft; hence, any business with which one is usually occupied.
  • (n.) A dramatic representation of a Scriptural subject, often some event in the life of Christ; a dramatic composition of this character; as, the Chester Mysteries, consisting of dramas acted by various craft associations in that city in the early part of the 14th century.

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.

Secrecy


Definition:

  • (n.) The state or quality of being hidden; as, his movements were detected in spite of their secrecy.
  • (n.) That which is concealed; a secret.
  • (n.) Seclusion; privacy; retirement.
  • (n.) The quality of being secretive; fidelity to a secret; forbearance of disclosure or discovery.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In a newspaper interview last month, Shapps said the BBC needed to tackle what he said was a culture of secrecy, waste and unbalanced reporting if it hoped to retain the full £3.6bn raised by the licence fee after the current Royal Charter expires in 2016.
  • (2) History contains numerous examples of government secrecy breeding abuse.
  • (3) The secrecy worries me if those decisions are being made without giving us the ability to hold them to account,” says Conservative London Assembly member Andrew Boff.
  • (4) National newspapers and the BBC have joined forces to oppose Hague's secrecy application and on Friday expressed their dismay at the ruling.
  • (5) Such is the secrecy around the plot – centred on an Alpine town where the dead come back to life – that not even the cast have been told about the new series, which is due to begin filming early next year.
  • (6) The government has won a High Court order to prevent the partial lifting of a secrecy order affecting the proposed inquest into the death of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko.
  • (7) The company was “owned” by four bearer shareholders, which gave it an extra degree of secrecy.
  • (8) Secrecy was encouraged and bribery, threats, and peer pressure used to induce participation in sexual activities.
  • (9) The prime minister, Tony Abbott , said on Thursday he was comfortable with being accused of secrecy on asylum seeker policy so long as the policies succeeded in stopping the boats.
  • (10) It's believed to be the first time an appeals court delayed an execution based on the issue of drug secrecy.
  • (11) However, in a demonstration of the intense secrecy surrounding NSA surveillance even after Edward Snowden's revelations, the senators claimed they could not publicly identify the allegedly misleading section or sections of a factsheet without compromising classified information.
  • (12) They've all had the courthouse doors slammed shut in the faces by courts that have accepted the US government's claims that its own secrecy powers and immunity rights bar any such justice.
  • (13) Their secrecy and diminished footprint make them harder than conventional wars to oppose and hold to account – though the backlash in countries bearing the brunt is bound to grow.
  • (14) These efforts don't solve the problem of government surveillance and secrecy.
  • (15) The engineer said he was concerned that the nuclear industry and local political system had a reputation for considerable secrecy that would not make it easy to discern what had gone wrong.
  • (16) The practice of HIV-tests for exclusion purpose promotes a tendency to secrecy, which is unfavourable to the social and medical control of the epidemic, especially because medical secret relatively to insurances is insufficient.
  • (17) "What the Guardian is highlighting is the vital role of secrecy in offshore abuse.
  • (18) Speaking on his LBC 97.3 radio show, Clegg said he strongly supported the need for secrecy by the intelligence agencies but there needed to be proper accountability as current regulation was quite opaque.
  • (19) In effect, we need all leaders to move health and social care organisations from fragmentation to integration; from tribes to interdisciplinary and inter-organisational teams; from internal focus to external focus; from domination and control to enabling collaboration; from secrecy to transparency; and from conflict and conflict avoidance to working through.
  • (20) • Apple has been able to draw a secrecy veil over its Irish operations by making extensive use of unlimited companies, which are not required to file company accounts.

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