confused

[ kuhn-fyoozd ]

adjective

1. not thinking coherently or rationally; bewildered; perplexed:

   My attempt to explain was met with confused stares and shrugging shoulders.

   Hopelessly confused, I just tossed my trash into what I thought was the right receptacle.

2. incorrectly differentiated, identified, or associated:

   You’re getting him confused with another player with the same name—this one plays for the Twins.

   In this lesson, students learn the frequently confused words their, they’re, and there.

3. without order; jumbled:

   Over time, the original neat lines of tents grew into a confused tangle of canvas-roofed shelters.

   What was once an imposing fortress is now just a confused heap of erect and fallen stones.

4. disconcerted, perturbed, or ashamed:

   I emerged from the office red-faced and confused.

5. expressed in a way that is not easily understood:

   The novel plods along trying to provide hopelessly confused technical detail, much of which is blatantly impossible according to the elementary laws of physics.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of confuse.

Other Words From

• con·fus·ed·ly [k, uh, n-, fyoo, -zid-lee, -, fyoozd, -], adverb
• con·fus·ed·ness noun
• pre·con·fus·ed·ly adverb
• su·per·con·fused adjective
• un·con·fused adjective
• un·con·fus·ed·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of confused¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; confuse ( def ) + -ed ²( def ) for the adjective senses; confuse ( def ) + -ed ¹( def ) for the verb sense

Example Sentences

This disjuncture — between the rapidly rising case counts and relatively relaxed social life — has left some confused, and others complacent.

From Vox

Her confidence plummeted, and she was confused about the options the district laid out for how she could finish the class.

From Voice of San Diego

You become confused, wary, uncertain what to believe or how to act.

From Nautilus

When another doctor had tried to take her medical history the night before, Johnson was too confused to provide it.

From ProPublica

These imperfections—and the surrealist quality of the memes—will keep them from being confused for reality.

From MIT Technology Review

Unfortunately, the most confused Ebola alarmists had millions of followers: Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter.

From The Daily Beast

I think he sometimes got it confused, particularly in his storytelling.

From The Daily Beast

He said his son was confused why he was being pulled over—other cars had been speeding by him—before hanging up the phone.

From The Daily Beast

It began when a classmate raised her hand and stated that she was confused about the facts of the case.

From The Daily Beast

“I fall very much on the pessimistic spectrum, in the sense that I get very confused about it,” she says.

From The Daily Beast

The crowd shuffled off in all directions, and then engaged in a confused struggle for the chairs.

From Project Gutenberg

Results are in terms of bulk of precipitate, which must not be confused with percentage by weight.

From Project Gutenberg

She now understood nearly all that was said directly to her, though she could not follow general and confused conversation.

From Project Gutenberg

He gave me some instructions, but I was too confused to understand them, and too shy to ask questions.

From Project Gutenberg

Irregular spurts of musketry heralded the appearance of confused masses of armed men.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• baffled
• befuddled
• bewildered
• dazed
• disorganized
• distracted
• muddled
• perplexed
• perturbed
• puzzled