bewildering

adjective

be·​wil·​der·​ing bi-ˈwil-d(ə-)riŋ 

bē-

: extremely confusing or difficult to understand

an utterly bewildering experience

a bewildering number of possibilities

… a place of odd traditions and bewildering practices.

—David Williamson

bewilderingly adverb

a bewilderingly complex situation

Examples of bewildering in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Here, clouds of stars and dark interstellar dust combine in a bewildering array as seen in binoculars and telescopes. — Joe Rao, Space.com, 26 June 2026

The bewildering time signatures that worked to scramble records like Jane Doe are still present, but they’re deployed to different ends, consumed by massive grooves. — Alex Robert Ross, Pitchfork, 24 June 2026

This is the bewildering doublethink of attending or covering a World Cup. — Adam Crafton, New York Times, 23 June 2026

Trump’s proposal for a National Garden of American Heroes, where visitors could commune with statues of 250 historic figures, is simply bewildering. — Yoni Appelbaum, The Atlantic, 8 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1761, in the meaning defined above