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

Six weeks after the perplexing murders, across the country in a small, hardscrabble Pennsylvania town in the Poconos, Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old criminology graduate student, was arrested. —Howard Blum, Washington Post, 26 June 2024

While this saga has compelling themes, its magic gets dimmed in the perplexing plot points and unnecessary exposition that perforate its 10-episode first season. —Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 23 June 2024

The investor announcement comes more than four years after MoviePass filed for bankruptcy due to a lack of funding needed to sustain its perplexing business model. —Christi Carras, Los Angeles Times, 20 June 2024

So, the early Universe remains a fairly perplexing place. —John Timmer, Ars Technica, 17 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1585, in the meaning defined above