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.
“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
After moving himself down a place to number seven, he essentially missed a straight one to be bowled by Smith, and looked bewildered that his stumps had been disturbed.
From BBC • Jun. 5, 2026
And that, above all, is why so many of us in the media are bewildered by the moves that CBS News’ new editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, made recently.
From Barron's • Jun. 5, 2026
The remarkable April rally that saw the S&P 500 register one of its sharpest rebounds on record and finish last week at a new peak has some investors bewildered.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 20, 2026
We all stood there, bewildered at the terrifying crescendo of sound we were now hearing.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
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.
