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

For nearly five decades, NASA's twin Voyager probes have plumbed the cosmos in search of answers to some of astronomy's most perplexing mysteries about our solar system and its place in the wider universe. —Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 8 Sep. 2025

The justice character dimension has been perplexing to people. —Mary Crossan, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025

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

Word History

First Known Use

1585, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for perplexing

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