- present participle of baffle.
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.
A new documentary is reviving the stirring if maddening voyage of the “Mighty Mary,” a groundbreaking America’s Cup crew undermined by one of the most baffling backroom deals in sports history.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
But as a casual observer of college football, ESPN’s offer to Cruz initially struck me as a baffling spectacle.
From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2026
As if being ripped nationwide for his travel plans wasn’t painful enough, McVay will also be skewered for a baffling decision on a third-quarter play that could have rescued the Rams but instead doomed them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Kyler Murray has swapped baffling climate-controlled football in Arizona for baffling climate-controlled football in Minneapolis.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
The ecosystem on this lifeboat was decidedly baffling.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
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.
