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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The pilot of a private jet reportedly made an eerie discovery while flying thousands of feet over Rhode Island, marking the latest in unexplained encounters baffling both experts and civilians alike.—
Julia Bonavita,
FOXNews.com,
22 Dec. 2025 -
From financial wipeouts to baffling misreads of beloved source material, some of Hollywood’s most notorious flops began as video games.—
Alison Foreman,
IndieWire,
19 Dec. 2025
Verb
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This Upper Paleolithic burial even became famous, though puzzling to researchers, because the unusual skeletal remains were even disfigured.—
Maria Mocerino,
Interesting Engineering,
31 Jan. 2026
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But in recent years, Betelgeuse has thrown astronomers a few puzzling curveballs that have required serious detective work to solve.—
Ashley Strickland,
CNN Money,
20 Jan. 2026
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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Too many turnaround attempts see a CEO throwing spaghetti at the wall in the hopes something will work, further confusing the rank and file and sapping their confidence in management.—
Phil Wahba,
Fortune,
30 Jan. 2026
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One thing confusing some residents is snow emergency declarations and the residential street parking restrictions.—
Veronica Ortega,
CBS News,
26 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The disjunction between the abstract composition and the notion of self-portraiture appeared perplexing in its own right; its inoperability only exacerbated the viewer’s frustration and redoubled the artist’s impish provocation.—
Ara H. Merjian,
Artforum,
1 Jan. 2026
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Even more than the finished show, this eerie, perplexing multi-Gaga spectacle feels like a glimpse into her subconscious.—
Brian Hiatt,
Rolling Stone,
13 Nov. 2025
Verb
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In the latest violence rattling the fragile ceasefire, medics said two men were killed by Israeli forces in eastern Khan Younis, in an area adjacent to where the army operates.—
Nidal al-Mughrabi,
USA Today,
29 Jan. 2026
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Archival footage illustrates, in pulse-pounding and nerve-rattling fashion, just how widespread calls for Rushdie’s murder were.—
Kate Erbland,
IndieWire,
26 Jan. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Addling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/addling. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.
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