bewildered
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bewildered
Explanation
If a conversation about quantum mechanics leaves you feeling bewildered, or lost and befuddled, don't feel bad: physics is a baffling and confusing subject. Be- + wildered = "thoroughly gone astray, into the wild," which is pretty much what our minds do when we don't understand something, when we don't even come close to understanding it. If you're bewildered, you are confused on a whole new level. You may even find your confusion confusing. Great synonyms for this word include at sea, bemused, confounded, and mixed-up.
Vocabulary lists containing bewildered
Of Mice and Men
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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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.
Still, some U.S. business executives said they are bewildered by the legal justification for the new global tariff.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Comment sections have quickly evolved into a digital support group for bewildered men swapping stories of their own theatre experience.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
It showed a clear timeline of how tensions escalated and the initial bodycam footage which included many people looking upset and bewildered in the moments after the boys crashed.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
“The Admin wants all of this to happen as soon as possible. It is frankly bewildered that Anthropic hasn’t wanted to comply with safety requests that it previously said were its highest priority,” he wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026
Poor child, she was bewildered by the many injunctions we laid upon her, and the curtailing of her freedom tried her sorely, though not a word of complaint came from her.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
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.
