baffled
Americanadjective
-
bewildered or perplexed; puzzled.
I went to bed shaking my head, completely baffled and amazed at the strange turn the day had taken.
-
equipped with one or more baffles, or structures to obstruct the movement of fluids, sound, etc..
Any spraying operations shall be done within a baffled or enclosed area of the solvent cleaning machine.
-
thwarted.
“Every anarchist is a baffled dictator,” wrote Mussolini.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of baffled
Explanation
When you're baffled, you're confused or perplexed. Being baffled is being befuddled, bewildered, confounded, or mixed up. If you're baffled, you can't understand something. Some people are baffled by math; others are baffled by things celebrities do. Some are baffled at why anyone would care what celebrities do. Sometimes when you're baffled, you genuinely can't figure something out, and other times, you just disapprove. For example, a teacher could say, "I'm baffled that you missed the test!" As long as the world is full of odd things, we'll all spend part of our lives baffled.
Vocabulary lists containing baffled
Similes from Top AP English Exam Novels
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A Long Way Gone
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Beowulf vocabulary
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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.
The man who has made a career out of baffling other people seems genuinely baffled himself, reduced to explaining the word “can” to the founder of Theranos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
I am regularly baffled by teams' tyre strategies, but Ferrari's in Singapore was the worst in recent years.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
Fox’s announcers were baffled, wondering out loud if France’s hit should have been a home run.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
A baffled Erika felt that her mom had been replaced with a combative and paranoid stranger.
From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026
At Turner’s, he stood in front of a shelf of crackers, baffled by the variety.
From "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Pérez
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
