How to Use mystify in a Sentence

mystify

verb
  • The cause of the disease mystified doctors for many years.
  • The magician has been mystifying his audiences for years with his amazing tricks.
  • But at the time, Larry and his son were mystified and hurt.
    Jonathan Abrams, New York Times, 19 June 2023
  • The idea that anyone would dive in and get their hands tattooed first mystifies him a bit.
    Jacob Gallagher, WSJ, 1 Oct. 2018
  • All the remotes mystify even the people who set the systems up.
    Alison Sider, WSJ, 26 Nov. 2018
  • For a topic that's been front-page news for weeks, the debt ceiling sure seems to mystify a lot of people.
    David Pogue, CBS News, 28 May 2023
  • We are mystified why the company put such a puny timber spike on the saw.
    Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 31 July 2019
  • What stuff about the older players mystified the younger ones, and vice versa?
    Sean Gregory, Time, 22 July 2023
  • But Gilbert sort of mystifies us because the town tries to project such a wholesome image.
    John D'anna, azcentral, 22 Nov. 2019
  • Across the reach of centuries, Eisner was both impressed and mystified by the violence of the killing.
    Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 12 Mar. 2024
  • Chira’s seizures this year have mystified zoo staff, and an MRI would give then a look inside her head, neck and brain.
    Anne Saker, Cincinnati.com, 12 July 2019
  • Is Nothing Left to Lose, and the subject of which drummer plays on which songs continues to mystify fans of the band.
    Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 1 Apr. 2022
  • The fans seemed not so much angry at Leonard, as mystified that a Spur is not here, with his team, giving them his love and support.
    Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 Apr. 2018
  • Back in the 1500s, Johannes Kepler himself was mystified by the lack of a planet between Mars and Jupiter.
    Brian Resnick, Vox, 30 Apr. 2018
  • The desire to keep these people away from our country mystifies me.
    Author: Charles Wohlforth, Alaska Dispatch News, 1 July 2017
  • Patton, 28, is mystified by why Hale reached out to her before the massacre.
    Joanna Slater, Washington Post, 29 Mar. 2023
  • Right, and talking with Iowa Democrats, the thing that the people who are not part of the Biden camp say mystifies them about this campaign is this is a guy who's run now three times.
    NBC News, 6 Oct. 2019
  • Some involved in the Russia case said they were mystified by his statement.
    Anchorage Daily News, 9 Dec. 2019
  • His family and friends said they were mystified by his death.
    Jane Wester, Adam Bell and Mark Price lavendrick Smith, charlotteobserver, 20 Oct. 2017
  • There are things that mystify and things that, sadly, shouldn’t be all that surprising.
    Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 26 Dec. 2020
  • As Babbage, Brian Griffin is as mystified by Ada as he is drawn to her.
    David Lyman, Cincinnati.com, 14 Apr. 2018
  • Her search turned up a Vancouver art project, but she was still mystified as customers asked about them.
    Ed Fletcher, sacbee, 31 Jan. 2018
  • For those who successfully changed the laws in the wake of deadly shootings, the U.S. stance is mystifying.
    Washington Post, 5 Aug. 2019
  • But the Maggiore killings are believed to be his first, and detectives who have worked the case for decades still are mystified by what triggered the slayings.
    Marjie Lundstrom and Sam Stanton, sacbee, 14 May 2018
  • League observers seemed mystified by the $15 million the Ravens paid for a 30-year-old wide receiver coming back from a torn ACL.
    Childs Walker, Baltimore Sun, 13 July 2023
  • The song’s co-authors, Carey and Walter Afanasieff, are in a mystifying feud.
    David Bauder, Fortune, 11 Dec. 2023
  • Turns out plenty of us, including diplomat and British author Andy Scott, are mystified about the right and wrong moves.
    Randy Dotinga, The Christian Science Monitor, 21 Mar. 2018
  • These events took place years ago, and the fluency that kids had with cosmetic practices mystified me then.
    Elise Hu, The Atlantic, 24 Feb. 2024
  • One thing that still mystifies Raia and Diniz-Filho is how these hominids, with tiny, chimp-sized brains, thrived for so long on the islands.
    Fox News, 4 Nov. 2019
  • Nicholas Poehl, lawyer for Dmitrios Pagourtzis, says his family are mystified about his motives.
    Shelby Webb, Houston Chronicle, 5 June 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mystify.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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