bewildered

adjective

be·​wil·​dered bi-ˈwil-dərd How to pronounce bewildered (audio)
bē-
: deeply or utterly confused or perplexed
I was appalled and was too bewildered to do or say anything.Bram Stoker
He looked at her with a bewildered expression.
Speaking for myself, I stumbled into motherhood and was bewildered at the shift of gears, the volte-face required to reorient myself, my values and my way of life into being a carer of small children.Madeleine Bunting

Examples of bewildered in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Agnes is a contrast to Elena’s sycophantic Greek chorus of cheery and bewildered advisors who barely have names and definitely don’t have individual personalities other than that they’re played by pedigreed British thespians (David Bamber, Danny Web and Henry Goodman, among others). Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Feb. 2024 Some seemed to bask in living as rich sellouts, and some insisted on presenting a political critique, but all reveled in being condemned by bewildered Egyptian parents. Lisa Anderson, Foreign Affairs, 20 Feb. 2024 But the bewildered reactions have hardly dampened users’ resolve to hype it as a transformative interface. Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 2 Feb. 2024 The answer, revealed to me after months of bewildered meditation, was simple but not very satisfying. Truman Capote, Vogue, 1 Feb. 2024 For my mother, for me, and for many Jews, the Holocaust is the precedent, the comparable, the question that, since the Hamas massacres, bewildered and frightened Jews have been asking themselves and anyone who will listen. TIME, 27 Jan. 2024 King wondered what level of awareness Coppola had brought to this portrayal: Did the tone of bewildered Orientalism belong to her characters or to her? Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2024 Every time the tsunami siren sounds, often in the middle of the night, dozens of sleepy residents and bewildered tourists end up at the Seldovia school, waiting hours for the warning to be cancelled. Chuong Nguyen, Ars Technica, 27 Nov. 2023 After a few minutes, the station worker positioned himself in front of it, looking a little bewildered. Clio Chang, Curbed, 7 Dec. 2023

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

Word History

First Known Use

1760, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of bewildered was in 1760

Dictionary Entries Near bewildered

Cite this Entry

“Bewildered.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bewildered. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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