bewilder
Americanverb (used with object)
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bewilders,
present (3rd person singular)
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bewildered,
past participle, past
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bewildering
present participle
verb
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to confuse utterly; puzzle
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archaic to cause to become lost
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bewildersimple
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bewilderssimple
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have bewilderedperfect
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has bewilderedperfect
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am bewilderingprogressive
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are bewilderingprogressive
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is bewilderingprogressive
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have been bewilderingperfect progressive
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has been bewilderingperfect progressive
Past
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bewilderedsimple
-
had bewilderedperfect
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was bewilderingprogressive
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were bewilderingprogressive
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had been bewilderingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bewilder
Explanation
To bewilder is to amaze, baffle, dumbfound, flummox, perplex, or stupefy. When you bewilder people, you confuse them. Bewilder is a fun-sounding word for confusion-causing. A complicated math problem will bewilder many students. A magician's tricks should bewilder the audience. Mystery stories should be a little bewildering, at least until the end. Sometimes, being bewildered has a more emotional element. If someone you know died in a freak accident, that would bewilder you in a very sad way.
Vocabulary lists containing bewilder
List 3
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Novel Study: The Outsiders, Chapters 1–5
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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:
The absurdist’s power rests in their ability to befuddle and bewilder, trusting the joke will land with the right folks and insult their target’s intelligence.
From Salon ● May 21, 2026
Essential to a wilderness is its capacity to bewilder, and though certain of Church’s colleagues in the Hudson River group, notably Worthington Whittredge, brilliantly captured this dense, enfolding quality, Church seldom did.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
If the soul of Leif Erikson were to materialize inside his statue for a day, much of what he saw would bewilder him.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 13, 2023
Thanksgiving is a time for making people happy, not for persuading them to drink avant-garde styles that you love but that may bewilder mainstream drinkers.
From New York Times ● Nov. 4, 2021
This was one more thing to bewilder everyone, especially the horseman.
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
It all bewilders some who say they supported Muslims when they were under attack from the far-right and now feel betrayed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2023
The variety of goals that the Japanese striker scores is astonishing, but all of them have one thing in common - speed of thought that bewilders the unfortunates tasked with the job of marking him.
From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2023
Basra continually bewilders experts, envoys and residents: How can a relatively stable province so rich in resources rank among the poorest and most under-developed in the country?
From Washington Times ● Mar. 24, 2023
Basra continually bewilders experts, envoys and residents: How can a relatively stable province so rich in resources rank among the poorest and most underdeveloped in the country?
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 23, 2023
A political crisis bursts like a tornado, and bewilders the strongest characters.
From Lord Chatham His Early Life and Connections by Archibald Phillip Primrose Rosebery
Birds and other animals, bewildered by unforeseen night, start behaving strangely.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
At first, I was pleasantly surprised, if a little bewildered because of who they came from.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026
Young describes his childhood mostly from the perspective of a boy — alternately bewildered, hurting, depressed and “mad all the time.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
Still, some U.S. business executives said they are bewildered by the legal justification for the new global tariff.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
She made Medea, all bewildered with love and misery, determine to fly with Jason.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
One of the more bewildering primary results of the year came this week in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District, a swing seat currently represented by Democratic freshman Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet.
From Slate ● Aug. 8, 2026
While border officials contact authorities nationwide to verify the identity of those who don't have any form of ID, the process for newly arrived Afghans can be bewildering.
From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 2026
Passengers on board the Nottingham service described the collision as "bewildering and frightening".
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2026
Liberalism has come to acquire a bewildering range of meanings over the years; our understanding of the word is, by necessity, contextual.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
There’s this whole new world of bewildering situations.
From "What If It's Us" by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
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.
