confuse
Americanverb (used with object)
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confuses,
present (3rd person singular)
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confused,
past participle, past
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confusing
present participle
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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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preconfuseverb (used with object)
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reconfuseverb (used with object)
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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.
See Examples For:
The unwanted beam copies, called grating lobes, can confuse the sensor and generate false detections.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
Charlize Theron is appropriately enchanting as Calypso, whose charms waylay and confuse Odysseus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
The Greeks never tried to confuse the audience in the pursuit of suspense.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
Still, Charu Chanana at Saxo Markets warned "investors should be careful not to confuse lower oil prices with the end of the inflation problem".
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
“Then trip them for me, trip them and confuse them and slow them down. Can you do that?”
From "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman
“It confuses the market” that growth expectations didn’t get a lift despite AI-chip revenue jumping more than 143% from a year ago, Mulberry said.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 5, 2026
This creates what is known as the doorway effect, which confuses our brains.
From BBC ● May 29, 2026
“It confuses me that we’re struggling with that as a society. Internet access is a basic need.”
From Salon ● Apr. 26, 2026
One of the persistent story lines in the WBC: The Americans should have more fun, which confuses exuberance with passion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026
But this confuses the grammatical category “adjective” with the grammatical function “modifier.”
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
This has made his colleagues uneasy and confused markets, said Robert Tetlow, a former senior policy adviser at the Fed for almost 30 years.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026
At the University of Chicago, where I finished graduate school, nobody confused potential with accomplishment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
“I humbly ask you to please add my middle initial so I never get confused with the singer.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
"I didn't want to take strong medication which made me feel ill, not in control and often so confused that I felt I'd dementia," she said.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
Explanations were rare and disappointing, and she seemed genuinely confused that Janet resented being left alone.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
And in Mr. Barnett’s telling, we grown-ups frequently get it wrong, too often confusing a good lesson with a good story.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
It may seem confusing that exercise isn’t especially effective for losing weight but can help prevent regain.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
Niu Lai, a low-budget animation film about a cow in a dream sequence has seen a huge jump in ticket sales after going viral for its confusing plot and terrible graphics.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
Bringing in extra mythology wouldn’t make the confusing parts any less confusing, and would just confuse the parts that aren’t confusing at all.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
If anything, the bright light stabbing through the leaves made things more confusing.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
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.
