confuse
Americanverb (used with object)
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to perplex or bewilder.
The flood of questions confused me.
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to make unclear or indistinct.
The rumors and angry charges tended to confuse the issue.
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to fail to distinguish between; associate by mistake; confound.
to confuse dates;
He always confuses the twins.
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to disconcert or abash.
His candor confused her.
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to combine without order; jumble; disorder.
Try not to confuse the papers on the desk.
- Synonyms:
- disturb, disarrange, disarray
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Archaic. to bring to ruin or naught.
verb
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to bewilder; perplex
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to mix up (things, ideas, etc); jumble
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to make unclear
he confused his talk with irrelevant details
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to fail to recognize the difference between; mistake (one thing) for another
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to disconcert; embarrass
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to cause to become disordered
the enemy ranks were confused by gas
Synonym Usage
Confuse, disconcert, embarrass imply temporary interference with the clear working of one's mind. To confuse is to produce a general bewilderment: to confuse someone by giving complicated directions. To disconcert is to disturb one's mind by irritation, perplexities, etc.: to disconcert someone by asking irrelevant questions. To embarrass is to cause one to be ill at ease or uncomfortable, so that one's usual judgment and presence of mind desert one: to embarrass someone by unexpected rudeness.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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confusabilitynoun
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confusableadjective
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unconfusableadjective
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confusablyadverb
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unconfusablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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confusesimple
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confusessimple
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have confusedperfect
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has confusedperfect
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am confusingprogressive
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are confusingprogressive
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is confusingprogressive
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have been confusingperfect progressive
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has been confusingperfect progressive
Past
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confusedsimple
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had confusedperfect
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was confusingprogressive
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were confusingprogressive
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had been confusingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of confuse
First recorded in 1300–50; from Old French confus “perplexed,” from Latin confūsus “mixed, poured,” past participle of confundere; see confound
Explanation
If you confuse two things, you are not correctly identifying them. If you confuse heartburn with a heart attack, you might end up at the emergency room instead of in the antacid aisle of the drugstore. To confuse can also mean to bewilder. If you tell a teacher that she's confusing you, you probably mean that she's being more complex than you can handle. A lot of people get confused by the differences among "their," "they're," and "there." To confuse the situation even further, there's "theirs" and "there's."
Vocabulary lists containing confuse
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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.
Behavioral-finance experts say this stems from the “endowment effect”: a psychological bias where we overvalue what we already own and confuse familiarity with financial security.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 23, 2026
But lest anyone confuse him with a mortal, he followed up with a pair of goals to become the tournament’s all-time leading scorer.
From Slate • Jun. 22, 2026
"Our wives look so alike that even their family members sometimes confuse them. We don't mix them up, we know our own wives very well," Kehinde Oguntoye said.
From BBC • Jun. 22, 2026
But people often confuse the homelessness crisis and the behavioral health system crisis because these two crises converge—a dearth of affordable housing, and a lack of residential and inpatient treatment options.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 11, 2026
“Mom says it’s so people don’t confuse me with Dad,” Bobby Gene said.
From "The Season of Styx Malone" by Kekla Magoon
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.
