confounding

[ kon-foun-ding, kuhn- ]
See synonyms for: confoundingconfoundings on Thesaurus.com

adjective
  1. perplexing or bewildering: He’s hosting an evening of readings from some of the most sensational and confounding cases of Sherlock Holmes.

  2. throwing someone or something into confusion or disorder: Still in shock, his wife broke the confounding news that their only son had been killed by a stray bullet.

  1. Statistics. interacting with both the dependent and independent variables in an experiment or study, making it impossible to determine a causal effect between them:The authors list potential confounding factors, but it is not clear from the paper whether all of these were controlled for in the analyses.

noun
  1. the act of perplexing, bewildering, causing confusion or disorder, etc.: The Jaredite civilization is supposed to have formed in the wake of the miraculous confounding of languages at the Tower of Babel.

  2. the act of treating or viewing different things as if they were the same: I have always found the confounding of Christmas and Hanukkah disturbing.

Origin of confounding

1
First recorded in 1425–75; confound + -ing2 for the adjective senses; confound + -ing1 for the noun senses

Other words from confounding

  • con·found·ing·ly, adverb
  • un·con·found·ing, adjective
  • un·con·found·ing·ly, adverb

Words Nearby confounding

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use confounding in a sentence