1
as in tricking
to cause to believe what is untrue
bamboozled by con men into buying worthless land in the desert
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in baffling
to throw into a state of mental uncertainty
I'm completely bamboozled by the latest changes in the tax code
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bamboozling
Verb
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How to protect yourself from AI phishing scams AI phishing scams rely on tricking people into trusting what looks and sounds real.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
14 Oct. 2025 -
Some have also used the hashtag #homelessman to post their videos, all of which center on the idea of tricking people into believing that there is a stranger inside their home.—
Maura Murphy,
NBC news,
10 Oct. 2025
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
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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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North Korea, fooling no one, is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.—
John M. Crisp,
Mercury News,
29 Oct. 2025
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The fastball-splitter combo was working well for him again, while his 74 mph curveball was fooling hitters all night as well.—
Scott Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
26 Oct. 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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To begin with, looks that are deceiving.—
Lizz Schumer,
PEOPLE,
21 Oct. 2025
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That’s 14 years of dreaming, dissolving, romanticizing, escaping, and sometimes deceiving ourselves.—
Dossé-Via Trenou,
Refinery29,
19 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Chemical clues from another world What makes these observations particularly intriguing and puzzling is the detection of nickel without concurrent detection of iron above our instrumental limits.—
Darryl Seligman,
Space.com,
27 Oct. 2025
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There was, however, one puzzling factor.—
Dan Albano,
Oc Register,
22 Oct. 2025
Verb
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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
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Taylor is accustomed to playing forceful characters who have perplexing emotions about motherhood, and in A Thousand and One, Taylor earned her stripes as a performer and acclaim.—
Essence,
Essence,
18 Sep. 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
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Cite this Entry
“Bamboozling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bamboozling. Accessed 2 Nov. 2025.
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