bemuse
Americanverb (used with object)
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bemuses,
present (3rd person singular)
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bemused,
past participle, past
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bemusing
present participle
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to bewilder or confuse.
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to preoccupy; engross.
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to cause to be mildly amused, especially in a detached way.
Apparently bemused by his critics, he floated above the clamor surrounding the campaign.
verb
Commonly Confused
The verb bemuse (usually as the adjective bemused ) is similar in sound to amuse , and has in fact taken on the meaning "to cause to be mildly amused." Many usage experts and traditionalists consider this a misuse of bemuse , pointing out that its proper meaning is “to bewilder or confuse.” However, the history and use of bemuse has shown that its meaning is often ambiguous. It's often the case that one's feelings are a combination of bewilderment and amusement: Their customs bemuse most Americans. Even when it clearly means "to bewilder or confuse," bemuse usually retains a lighthearted tone: one would not typically say: I was bemused by his motive for the murder.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bemusesimple
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bemusessimple
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have bemusedperfect
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has bemusedperfect
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am bemusingprogressive
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are bemusingprogressive
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is bemusingprogressive
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have been bemusingperfect progressive
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has been bemusingperfect progressive
Past
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bemusedsimple
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had bemusedperfect
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was bemusingprogressive
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were bemusingprogressive
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had been bemusingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bemuse
Explanation
To bemuse is to confuse or puzzle. You could bemuse your teacher by writing an essay as a series of haikus, but don’t. Usually a bemused teacher is not a happy one. Bemuse is not the same as amuse, which means to entertain someone or make them laugh. If you tell a joke, you don’t want to bemuse your audience because they won’t laugh, they’ll be too busy trying figure out what you just said. New situations and weird dreams bemuse some people, so they feel dazed and bemused.
Vocabulary lists containing bemuse
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Uglies
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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:
Today, Troll Haven still stands sentry on the Olympic Peninsula — just as Bandy’s Southern California castles continue to amuse and bemuse Burbank residents and workers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 8, 2023
Her response is to clam up, presenting “a terminal face—nothing in it, nothing behind it, a well-turned-out nothing” that “I thought would bemuse the gossips, confound them.”
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 3, 2018
What does surprise and bemuse me is the number of fans who have denounced it.
From New York Times ● Oct. 23, 2016
Still, the story of Stephen and Natasha Spender retains its power to shock and bemuse.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 4, 2015
Peter said, "I hope that this poetry will: amuse, bemuse, entice, entertain, delight, shock, inform, educate and inspire the readers of these pages."
From Dreaming of Dreaming Poetry by Peter E. Williams by Tim McCann
It’s like a magical realist novel in which the Carry On star bemuses the architect of the Russian revolution with a camp remark.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 4, 2015
Although exactly what male activists are fighting for, when men still dominate so many important areas of society, bemuses many others.
From BBC ● Jan. 30, 2014
Of many examples in my life, it bemuses me to remember that I used to be a devotee of Philip Glass.
From Slate ● Apr. 10, 2012
Endocrine-disruption research certainly addresses mechanisms but has an applied aspect, as a chimeric field that interweaves many disciplines and perhaps bemuses the unimaginative.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 11, 2011
He looks at an open window and the dark gap behind it of some room or other over there, a shadowy room that bemuses him.
From Under Fire: the story of a squad by Fitzwater Wray
He was bemused when he talked to Slate on Sunday about the debate during an event in Charleston.
From Slate ● Aug. 25, 2026
With a voice at times bitter, befuddled and bemused at his own wrecked life, Busby emerges as a self-aware, sympathetic survivor who knew his best work came at the beginning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Even if British politics has become increasingly unstable, the abrupt rise of Burnham, 56, reads like a low-rent mashup of “House of Cards” and “Monty Python,” leaving even scandal-hardened politicos bemused.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 4, 2026
However, when Stokes returned to play for his county, Durham chief executive Tim Bostock said he was "bemused" by McCullum's take.
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2026
"Well, thank you," the boy said, totally bemused.
From "Matilda" by Roald Dahl
Another defeat, another tournament gone, and another head-in-hands moment in the bemusing collapse of this iconic Manchester City team.
From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2025
Perhaps the most bemusing example of misinformation came in a bankruptcy case where a law firm submitted legal briefs using research derived from ChatGPT — including citations to six legal precedents that the AI fabricated.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 24, 2023
What Gaines does not miss is Gregory’s spirit, and its effect — amusing, bemusing, inspiring — on the world around him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2021
But Wednesday’s game vs. the Cubs at Sloan Park provided an anecdote that some might consider to be bemusing irony or fitting coincidence.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 3, 2021
Pallas Athena and Zeus All Provident will see you through, bemusing our young friends.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
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.
