flummox
Americanverb (used with object)
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flummoxes,
present (3rd person singular)
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flummoxed,
past participle, past
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flummoxing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
flummoxsimple
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flummoxessimple
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have flummoxedperfect
-
has flummoxedperfect
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am flummoxingprogressive
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are flummoxingprogressive
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is flummoxingprogressive
-
have been flummoxingperfect progressive
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has been flummoxingperfect progressive
Past
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flummoxedsimple
-
had flummoxedperfect
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was flummoxingprogressive
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were flummoxingprogressive
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had been flummoxingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of flummox
First recorded in 1830–40; origin uncertain
Explanation
Does the word flummox bewilder, confound, dumbfound and generally mystify you? Well, fear no more, because flummox means all of these things! Things that flummox you are probably not that serious, and often pretty amusing and informal: a TV remote or a crossword puzzle, for example, rather than something major like why your boyfriend or girlfriend broke up with you. (Now that's unfathomable.) Get this: linguists are actually mystified as to where the word flummox comes from — they're flummoxed, in other words. It may come from an old English word, flummock, meaning "to make untidy or confuse," but no one is really sure. Now, what could be more suitable?
Vocabulary lists containing flummox
The Hobbit
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It must have slipped my mind...
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Booked
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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:
It has continued to flummox consumers in countries such as Spain and Italy, where "mermelada" and "marmellata" respectively are commonly used for spreads made from other kinds of fruit, such as plums and figs.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2026
That’s roughly as much as Tesla and, if it happens, will flummox traditional aerospace and defense analysts just like Tesla’s valuation can upset traditional car people.
From Barron's ● Dec. 12, 2025
The provision is remarkably straightforward—a far cry from the ambiguous, sloppy, or muddled laws that typically flummox the judiciary.
From Slate ● Apr. 16, 2024
A D-CAPTCHA system poses a test that’s designed to flummox current real-time deepfakes — for example, asking callers to hum, laugh, sing or just clear their throat.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2023
"I'm thinking these lads have mixed themselves up to flummox us."
From "The Whipping Boy" by Sid Fleischman
How a city that built itself on imagination and self-promotion could miss an opportunity right in front of us — something the world would pay attention to — simply flummoxes me.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2023
Becoming a threat with the deep ball will simply add a new wrinkle to Rising’s skillset, which routinely flummoxes defenses.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 9, 2022
The problem is, the planting and harvesting of horticultural crops that is handled so easily by people flummoxes robots.
From Salon ● May 7, 2022
This is the sort of argument that flummoxes great philosophers.
From New York Times ● Aug. 17, 2014
"Nobody flummoxes Hold-Your-Nose Billy and gets away with it!"
From "The Whipping Boy" by Sid Fleischman
Over in San Francisco, which faced down a severe heat wave in March, Google Weather users were left flummoxed by the charts of low-70s temps, way milder than the 90-degree record felt by downtown residents.
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026
The causes of endometriosis have left our best doctors and scientists totally flummoxed: no-one in the world knows definitively how and when it begins in a woman's body.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
They ended up meeting in the World Series, where batters were flummoxed by a steady diet of the pitch of the moment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026
For most of the night, their lineup was completely flummoxed by Venezuelan pitcher Eduardo Rodríguez, who posted a 5.02 ERA for the Arizona Diamondbacks last season.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026
Miss Mortimer stammered, flummoxed, for this was not the sort of reply one would expect from a Swanburne girl.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
More broadly, considering England's campaign as a whole, the wild form fluctuations are most flummoxing.
From BBC ● Mar. 14, 2026
What’s flummoxing about “Spaceman” isn’t what it is, but why it is.
From New York Times ● Feb. 29, 2024
That summer, the first big surge of Central American asylum seekers hit the border, flummoxing the Obama administration.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 19, 2022
Butler threw a stick into the spokes of Houston’s well-oiled machine to start the half, flummoxing the Cougars with a more aggressive defense.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2021
Wainwright pitched into the ninth inning that night at Busch Stadium, flummoxing the Dodgers with his pitch-to-soft-contact command before he was finally chased.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2021
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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.
