confound
Americanverb (used with object)
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confounds,
present (3rd person singular)
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confounded,
past participle, past
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confounding
present participle
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to perplex or amaze, especially by a sudden disturbance or surprise; bewilder; confuse.
The complicated directions confounded him.
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to throw into confusion or disorder.
The revolution confounded the people.
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to throw into increased confusion or disorder.
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to treat or regard erroneously as identical; mix or associate by mistake.
truth confounded with error.
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to mingle so that the elements cannot be distinguished or separated.
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to damn (used in mild imprecations).
Confound it!
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to contradict or refute.
to confound their arguments.
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to put to shame; abash.
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Archaic.
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to defeat or overthrow.
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to bring to ruin or naught.
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Obsolete. to spend uselessly; waste.
verb
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to astound or perplex; bewilder
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to mix up; confuse
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to treat mistakenly as similar to or identical with (one or more other things)
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to curse or damn (usually as an expletive in the phrase confound it! )
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to contradict or refute (an argument, etc)
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to rout or defeat (an enemy)
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obsolete to waste
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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confoundernoun
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interconfoundverb (used with object)
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preconfoundverb (used with object)
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unconfoundverb (used with object)
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confoundableadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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confoundsimple
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confoundssimple
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have confoundedperfect
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has confoundedperfect
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am confoundingprogressive
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are confoundingprogressive
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is confoundingprogressive
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have been confoundingperfect progressive
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has been confoundingperfect progressive
Past
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confoundedsimple
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had confoundedperfect
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was confoundingprogressive
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were confoundingprogressive
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had been confoundingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of confound
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English conf(o)unden, from Anglo-French confoundre, from Latin confundere “to mix,” equivalent to con- con- + fundere “to pour”
Explanation
If you have an identical twin, you've probably tried dressing alike so that people confound you with, or mistake you for, one another. You've also probably learned that, unfortunately, this trick doesn’t work on your mom. The verb confound means both "to mistake" and "to confuse." If you decide to treat yourself to a delicious dessert, you might find yourself confounded by the overwhelming number of choices. If you end up ordering the chocolate cake but the waiter brings you chocolate mousse, the waiter has somehow confounded those two options. Another meaning you may come across in literature is "to damn," as in "Confound it! You are the most exasperating person on the planet."
Vocabulary lists containing confound
100 SAT words Beginning with "C"
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"Common Sense," Vocabulary from the pamphlet
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But adding Alphabet won’t save the Dow from its other shortcomings, and the blue-chip index’s enduring popularity continues to confound me.
From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026
Trump is a political survivor who has demonstrated a remarkable ability to confound conventional wisdom.
From Salon ● Apr. 16, 2026
Add to that complexities of water that confound searching, especially near the Arctic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
Eli Carter and Martin Tobias suggest that a reversion to negative equity- bond correlations could confound expectations in 2026.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 22, 2025
Either she doesn't want to confound the jury, or she has no more idea than I have why Sam Westing had to play two roles.
From "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin
“We found that even after getting rid of these confounds, people still claimed early.”
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 16, 2026
“To be dead honest it confounds me,” said Jillian Michaels, the trainer turned podcaster, famous for her role on the reality TV show “Biggest Loser.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
“You're asking people in different age brackets, which confounds the entire thing, right?”
From Salon ● Dec. 4, 2024
It’s a comment that confounds Mary McGonigle-Martin, a Murrieta resident, who believed that providing her young son raw milk would make him healthier, until it nearly killed him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2024
It confounds me when people don’t assist or even welcome those on their own team.
From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys
A sea eagle that confounded experts by surviving into adulthood with a badly broken wing has been spotted back in the skies above Scotland's west coast.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
“Whatever we do in Iran, it seems, there is a price to pay,” says Ms. Jabarzadegan, a reluctant mediator in a messy case, who is genuinely confounded by the family.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
Raw milk’s success confounded me: How had it gained such a foothold in this country, despite regular outbreaks of salmonella and E. coli, and even the discovery of bird flu in Raw Farm’s milk?
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
However, the combined treatment didn’t meet the overall survival target thanks to confounded data.
From Barron's ● Apr. 27, 2026
No wonder Atticus confounded Henry in the early days of their association by saying, “Pleading’s little more than putting on paper what you want to say.”
From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee
This is about as confounding as you can get.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
But when the researchers took into account confounding factors such as a family history of neurodevelopmental disorders or mothers’ preexisting mental health conditions, the correlation disappeared.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2026
Donald Trump trades stocks at a confounding rate, Everlane is reportedly sold to Shein, and online media is succumbing to bots.
From Slate ● May 23, 2026
Add it all together, and you’re left with perhaps the most fascinating and confounding player in the sport—the perfect distillation of everything that is beautiful and terribly wrong with the modern game.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
I follow Amber in the papers to feel closer to her, but the stories are confounding.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
