baffling
Britishadjective
Other Word Forms
Explanation
If something is baffling, it's completely confusing or mysterious. You might find your friend's hatred for the taste of chocolate utterly baffling. A good mystery novel begins with a baffling crime — one that seems at first nearly impossible to solve. You might also find your math homework baffling or wander around the baffling snarl of streets in a city with no idea where you are. The earliest meaning of baffling was nautical, describing winds blowing in all directions. It comes from the verb baffle, which first meant "to disgrace" before it came to mean "to confuse."
Vocabulary lists containing baffling
This Week in Words: January 27 - February 2, 2018
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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.
BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Mark Chapman: "Baffling and nonsensical."
From BBC • Jan. 28, 2025
Baffling that wretched Harry and Meghan refer to their daughter Lilibet as “Princess” in the announcement of her christening.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 8, 2023
“Everything Everywhere All at Once”: Baffling, bizarre, breakneck and unforgettable, this singularly unique picture plunges the audience headlong into a maelstrom of multiverses.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 20, 2022
Baffling, and weirdly passive and ineffectual — almost like a child’s.
From New York Times • Jan. 5, 2022
“I played it this week with my brother Curtis. It’s Mr. Lemoncello’s Bewilderingly Baffling Bibliomania. It takes place in a make-believe library.”
From "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library" by Chris Grabenstein
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.
