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
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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.
But it’s still baffling, to say the least.
From Salon • May 17, 2026
“To me he’s had the greatest career of any NBA player … for him to do it again and answer the bell again, it’s … baffling in some ways.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 2, 2026
Lucas Digne's baffling decision to raise his arms and handle the ball as Omari Hutchinson tried to keep it in play gave Wood his chance with 19 minutes left.
From BBC • Apr. 30, 2026
Alliance Party assembly member Peter McReynolds, who sits on Stormont's infrastructure committee, said it was "baffling" that DfI had extended the scheme "without producing any evidence to justify the decision".
From BBC • Apr. 18, 2026
And suddenly my behaviour seemed to me utterly baffling.
From "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro
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.
