What distinguishes mysteries that are solved from those that go unsolved
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1 year ago
"Unresolved" to me, means something that hasn't been worked out yet, such as a conflict. Two people could have an argument, and are not speaking to each other and the situation is "unresolved". Essentially, a situation hasn't come to an end.
"Unsolved" is more like a specific problem that requires a solution. A math problem could be unsolved, a murder could be unsolved if we don't know who committed it, etc. If something is "unsolved", there's usually a specific answer that needs to be found, and simply hasn't been yet.
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travel_ali
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1 year ago
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edited 1 year ago
They are similar indeed and I understand the confusion.
Think of unresolved as relating to an arguement between 2+ people, and unsolved as relating to a puzzle or mystery which might only involve 1 person.
A crossword puzzle is unsolved until you finish it.
A fight over who gets the last bit of cake is unresolved until someone wins the argument (or steals it).
This does get a bit more confusing when you might say that "the two sides found a solution to their problem" or one person can "resolve to be a better man".
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chaclon
Native Speaker (US)
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1 year ago
Unresolved -> without resolution
Unsolved -> without solution
If you understand the nuances between these, you can understand the difference between unsolved and unresolved. If you don't, think that a resolution is more often used for conflicts, where solutions are concrete answers (there is some overlap which is hard to pin down).
Consider: a crime where you have no evidence will go unsolved. The Israel-Palestine conflict remains unresolved. Taking the last example further, a conflict may have a solution (or many solutions) without a resolution - the Israel-Palestine conflict has both the one-state and two-state solutions, but until one is adopted there is still no resolution. I hope this helps explain things.
"If one thinks carefully about unsolved and solved mysteries, what points out as the difference between them in most of the cases is the lack of effort which arises due to the lack of clues.
When detectives see that there are not enough clues to solve the case, usually they tend to give up and as a result, the mystery remains unsolved.
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