- present participle of confound.
confounding
Americanadjective
-
perplexing or bewildering.
He’s hosting an evening of readings from some of the most sensational and confounding cases of Sherlock Holmes.
-
throwing someone or something into confusion or disorder.
Still in shock, his wife broke the confounding news that their only son had been killed by a stray bullet.
-
Statistics. interacting with both the dependent and independent variables in an experiment or study, making it impossible to determine a causal effect between them.
The authors list potential confounding factors, but it is not clear from the paper whether all of these were controlled for in the analyses.
noun
-
the act of perplexing, bewildering, causing confusion or disorder, etc..
The Jaredite civilization is supposed to have formed in the wake of the miraculous confounding of languages at the Tower of Babel.
-
the act of treating or viewing different things as if they were the same.
I have always found the confounding of Christmas and Hanukkah disturbing.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of confounding
First recorded in 1425–75; confound ( def. ) + -ing 2 ( def. ) for the adjective senses; confound ( def. ) + -ing 1 ( def. ) for the noun senses
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.
When video of the incident began to spread, it was also confounding far beyond New York.
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026
In the past week alone, he has written about the head-scratching Philadelphia Phillies and the utterly confounding Chandler Simpson of the Tampa Bay Rays.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
This is about as confounding as you can get.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
This approach was designed to reduce bias and account for potential confounding factors.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 6, 2026
I follow Amber in the papers to feel closer to her, but the stories are confounding.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
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