perplexing

adjective

per·​plex·​ing pər-ˈplek-siŋ 

: difficult to understand : causing confusion

A perplexing feature of insomnia is that people seem to overestimate their sleep loss.

—Rita L. Atkinson et al.

Chronic acalculous biliary disorders are among the most perplexing diagnostic and therapeutic challenges in medicine.

—Richard M. Gore

A perplexing problem, often encountered by cat owners, is that of a refusal to use the litterbox after using it for years in the past.

—Susan L. Mathews

perplexingly adverb

a perplexingly complex problem

This was all that I could observe of her in the dim light and under the perplexingly strange circumstances of our meeting.

—Wilkie Collins

Examples of perplexing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Spencer Jones is one of the more perplexing prospects in recent baseball memory. —Jackson Roberts, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Sep. 2025

Chronic pain — that is more perplexing, with its biological purpose, if there even is one, proving elusive. —Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Money, 2 Sep. 2025

Plemons and Stone reunite after Lanthimos’s perplexing Kinds of Kindness, but Focus Features is putting out all the indicators that this has big Oscar ambitions. —Joe Reid, Vulture, 2 Sep. 2025

The Longs lived by a perplexing tangle of unspoken rules anchored by the admonishment to never invite the neighbors over. —Kristen Kidd, Denver Post, 30 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1585, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for perplexing

• annexing
• complexing
• flexing
• sexing
• vexing
• multiplexing