as in bewildering
to throw into a state of mental uncertainty
troops disoriented by the sudden change in battle plans
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as in confusing
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Recent Examples of disorienting
Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 18 Mar. 2025
The plot might seem repetitive, going back and forth between Violet trying to follow the anonymous rules and worming her way out of them to seek help (only to be outsmarted), but the movie’s exciting, stage-like formal flourishes and its disorienting lensing keep things moving smoothly.
—Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 10 Mar. 2025
Having your home taken apart to build someone else’s sounds nothing short of disorienting.
—H.m.a. Leow, JSTOR Daily, 3 Mar. 2025
Defying professional orthodoxies about keeping widescreen framings wide and widescreen editing simple, Ray relies copiously on closeups, quick montages, and distorting and disorienting diagonal angles.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 26 Feb. 2025
Observing the politics, posturing, and commentary in this year’s first few weeks has been disorienting for many.
—The Sorenson Impact Institute, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2025
Don’t be in the shot and make sure the background is not distracting or casting disorienting shadows.
—Hank Sanders, New York Times, 21 Feb. 2025
The genre revels in spatially disorienting the player.
—Lewis Gordon, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2025
Its story, punctuated by the sensation of war as a disorienting constant, first took shape in 2019, only for the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War to shape it further the following year — eventually leading to the displacement of over a hundred thousand Armenians in 2023.
—Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 14 Feb. 2025
Adjective
Interviews with investigators and other parties invested in these cases use shifting, disorienting focus to disguise people’s physical details.
—Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 18 Mar. 2025
The plot might seem repetitive, going back and forth between Violet trying to follow the anonymous rules and worming her way out of them to seek help (only to be outsmarted), but the movie’s exciting, stage-like formal flourishes and its disorienting lensing keep things moving smoothly.
—Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 10 Mar. 2025
Having your home taken apart to build someone else’s sounds nothing short of disorienting.
—H.m.a. Leow, JSTOR Daily, 3 Mar. 2025
Defying professional orthodoxies about keeping widescreen framings wide and widescreen editing simple, Ray relies copiously on closeups, quick montages, and distorting and disorienting diagonal angles.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 26 Feb. 2025
Observing the politics, posturing, and commentary in this year’s first few weeks has been disorienting for many.
—The Sorenson Impact Institute, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2025
Don’t be in the shot and make sure the background is not distracting or casting disorienting shadows.
—Hank Sanders, New York Times, 21 Feb. 2025
The genre revels in spatially disorienting the player.
—Lewis Gordon, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2025
Its story, punctuated by the sensation of war as a disorienting constant, first took shape in 2019, only for the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War to shape it further the following year — eventually leading to the displacement of over a hundred thousand Armenians in 2023.
—Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 14 Feb. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for disorienting
Adjective
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How the company hasn't bought AI start-up Anthropic is downright perplexing, to use the word of the day.—
Jim Cramer,
CNBC,
4 Aug. 2025
-
To Boltzmann’s contemporaries, this was perplexing.—
Leila Sloman,
Wired News,
3 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Researchers are particularly focused on unraveling the puzzling interplay between gas content, magma pressure and lava flow dynamics.—
Dan Perry,
Newsweek,
3 Jan. 2025
-
Almost two years into his ordeal, Gould learned of an initiative at the National Institutes of Health that focuses on solving the country’s most puzzling medical cases.—
Jason Liebowitz,
The Atlantic,
2 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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Here are just a few examples of the baffling details that the film tries to convince viewers are completely reasonable.—
CT Jones,
Rolling Stone,
12 Aug. 2025
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Even loyal fans may take occasional issue with a feature that’s by turns absurdist, philosophical, violent, wayward, satirical and baffling.—
Dennis Harvey,
Variety,
3 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Hilarious Theories Go Viral The bewildering encounter quickly went viral, prompting fellow Redditors to offer their own humorous theories for the stranger's behavior.—
Maria Morava,
MSNBC Newsweek,
15 Aug. 2025
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According to the researchers, these bewildering clouds are likely the remnants of much larger structures that puffed out of the galaxy's center several million years ago.—
Brandon Specktor,
Space.com,
10 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
The new legal landscape places greater responsibility on Congress to write less ambiguous statutes that more clearly recognize the different considerations—legal, scientific and policy—that go into writing effective rules.—
Susan E. Dudley,
Forbes.com,
5 Aug. 2025
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The book leaves off on a more ambiguous note, as Eleanor explains that she and Jamie weren't meant to be together.—
Caroline Blair,
People.com,
4 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
Health crises, geopolitical conflicts, tariffs and other factors make the future unknowable.—
David Materazzi,
Forbes.com,
4 Aug. 2025
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And an unknowable number have gone to great lengths, and great expense, to preserve it.—
Elycia Rubin,
HollywoodReporter,
30 July 2025
Adjective
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Some events, perhaps especially those that are morally incomprehensible, need to be wrestled with on a human level.—
Will Harris,
EW.com,
3 Aug. 2025
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Her scream resonated with the one in my chest while also being incomprehensible and beyond me.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Disorienting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/disorienting. Accessed 19 Aug. 2025.
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