Adjacent Words

mystery story definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a story about a crime (usually murder) presented as a novel or play or movie [syn: mystery, mystery story, whodunit]

Britannica Concise

Work of fiction in which the evidence related to a crime or to a mysterious event is so presented that the reader has an opportunity to consider solutions to the problem, the author's solution being the final phase of the piece. The mystery story is an age-old popular genre and is related to several other forms. Elements of mystery may be present in narratives of horror or terror, pseudoscientific fantasies, crime stories, accounts of diplomatic intrigue, affairs of codes and ciphers and secret societies, or any situation involving an enigma. See also detective story; gothic novel.

Moby Thesaurus

Marchen, Western, Western story, Westerner, adventure story, allegory, apologue, bedtime story, detective story, fable, fabliau, fairy tale, fantasy, fiction, folk story, folktale, gest, ghost story, horse opera, legend, love story, mystery, myth, mythology, mythos, nursery tale, parable, romance, science fiction, shocker, space fiction, space opera, suspense story, thriller, whodunit, work of fiction