as in baffling
to throw into a state of mental uncertainty
most of the applicants were befuddled by the wording of one of the questions on the driving test
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as in perplexing
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Recent Examples of befuddling
Matthew Schmidt, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Sep. 2025
Verb
That's why makes Seattle's decision to part ways with Martinez that much more befuddling.
—Matthew Schmidt, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for befuddling
Verb
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In May, Kennedy vowed to find what caused autism by September, baffling scientists who near-unanimously believe there is no one cause of the condition.—
Sasha Rogelberg,
Fortune,
22 Sep. 2025
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This is stuttering, crashing and other issues, even on high-end hardware way above recommended specs, which is baffling some.—
Paul Tassi,
Forbes.com,
18 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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The phenomenon is called seasonal asynchrony, and a new study finds these perplexing locations appear in tropical mountains of countries like Costa Rica as well as places like California that have Mediterranean climates.—
N'dea Yancey-Bragg,
USA Today,
22 Sep. 2025
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The Quiz In one of the more perplexing acquisitions this year, early 2000s music sharing platform LimeWire acquired the rights to the infamous Fyre Festival in an auction this week.—
Maggie McGrath,
Forbes.com,
19 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Your appetite might differ, but for me, nine novels in, all this code-cracking and jigsaw-puzzling is no longer thrilling.—
Kathryn Schulz,
New Yorker,
22 Sep. 2025
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This is puzzling since successful organizations focus on people, processes, and cultural change besides technology implementation.—
London School of Economics,
Forbes.com,
16 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Tuesday will go down as one of Boston’s most confounding losses of the season, a 4-3 defeat in 11 innings to the Baltimore Orioles in which the club went 0 for 13 with runners in scoring position.—
Mac Cerullo,
Boston Herald,
22 Aug. 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
Adjective
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The agency said the company relied on confusing interfaces and obscure disclosures.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
25 Sep. 2025
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Despite loving the brand, the process felt like an afterthought—confusing policy language, multiple touchpoints and no proactive communication.—
Sarah Jones,
Sourcing Journal,
25 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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On top of this dismaying thought comes the realization that the AI is available 24x7 and at a low cost or perhaps even free.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
19 Sep. 2025
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But the drum sound wasn’t nearly as dismaying as the studio’s piano, which kept slipping out of tune.—
Peter Ames Carlin,
Rolling Stone,
13 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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The french fries had a disconcerting astringency, like they’d been dusted in the same stuff that’s put on Hint of Lime Tostitos.—
Ellen Cushing,
The Atlantic,
22 Sep. 2025
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But the evidence lately is disconcerting.—
Kevin Acee,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
17 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Befuddling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/befuddling. Accessed 29 Sep. 2025.
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