as in baffling
to throw into a state of mental uncertainty
after slipping on the ice, Bethany was so addled that she left her groceries where they'd fallen
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for addling
Verb
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One morning, members of the Fort Greely missile defense base spot an ICBM of unknown origin on a suborbital trajectory heading straight for Chicago, baffling the country’s top intelligence and defense teams who only have 18 minutes to respond before impact.—
Jake Kring-Schreifels,
Time,
27 Oct. 2025 -
But there were strengths here, too, none more than England’s impervious Lazarus complex, that baffling inability to know when one is in a state of emergency.—
Megan Feringa,
New York Times,
26 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Further study is also needed to untangle one puzzling finding.—
Katie Hunt,
CNN Money,
7 Nov. 2025
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Some of the airports that do appear on the list are also puzzling — perhaps none more so than Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Alaska.—
Joel Rose,
NPR,
7 Nov. 2025
Verb
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And aren’t our real-life romantic complications bewildering enough?—
Stephanie Zacharek,
Time,
4 Sep. 2025
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Its ginormous investments in higher-value, tech-heavy sectors from smartphones to autos to semiconductors to biotechnology are disrupting the global landscape at bewildering speed.—
William Pesek,
Forbes.com,
27 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Perplexity’s image features photographs of people with some truly nightmarish distortions on its wall, while the placement of its sink is confusing and distracting.—
PC Magazine,
PC Magazine,
25 Oct. 2025
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This was out of respect for me, and also to avoid confusing the children.—
Judith Martin,
Mercury News,
23 Oct. 2025
Verb
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But as the fearsome storm unfolded, perplexing science questions emerged, said Joshua Wadler, an associate scientist at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach who was aboard the flights on Kermit with Hazelton.—
Dinah Voyles Pulver,
USA Today,
2 Nov. 2025
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Tutu Atwell’s role is perplexing Every fan base has some trademark bits.—
Nate Atkins,
New York Times,
1 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Minnesota set the tone for how this game would unfold in the first quarter, with a goal of rattling Goff and speeding up his internal clock.—
Colton Pouncy,
New York Times,
3 Nov. 2025
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But any agreement reached will be just one touchstone in a thorny and volatile great power rivalry between the world’s superpower democracy and an authoritarian China, whose growing military assertiveness under Xi in the East and South China Seas is rattling US allies in the region.—
Betsy Klein,
CNN Money,
30 Oct. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Addling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/addling. Accessed 11 Nov. 2025.
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