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

The change is perplexing to health experts nationally and in Wisconsin, which ranks among the worst states for excessive drinking, and where alcohol contributes to more than 3,000 deaths each year. —Madeline Heim, jsonline.com, 17 Jan. 2026

Confounding Kraken No team’s results feel more perplexing than Seattle’s right now. —Dom Luszczyszyn, New York Times, 15 Jan. 2026

This perplexing Pearsall predicament particularly matters because the Niners are walking into a buzzsaw. —Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 8 Jan. 2026

In a show full of people doing dumb stuff, Anna is doing dumb stuff for ambiguous reasons, though nearly every aspect of her character is rendered either perplexing or illogical in the finale. —Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 8 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1585, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for perplexing

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