bewildered

adjective

be·​wil·​dered bi-ˈwil-dərd 

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

Synonyms of bewildered

• dazed
• confused
• stunned
• distracted
• dizzy

Examples of bewildered in a Sentence

the bewildered child wandered aimlessly around the playground

Recent Examples on the Web

This sometimes left audience members bewildered about what had actually happened. —ArsTechnica, 6 Apr. 2026

The passenger in the back eventually looked up from her phone, noticed Louise, and locked eyes with this bewildered-looking woman blocking the crosswalk. —Catherine Lacey, New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2026

After Bondi came in, he was left bewildered when his team was ordered to abandon its work. —Ken B. Morales, ProPublica, 31 Mar. 2026

There was no punchline, no twist — just the straightforward, slightly bewildered observation that someone, somewhere, had performed surgery on a grape. —Samantha Agate, Miami Herald, 26 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1760, in the meaning defined above