puzzling
Americanadjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of puzzling
Explanation
Something that's puzzling is confusing, or hard to understand. It might seem puzzling to you that your best friend claims to hate doughnuts. People sometimes act in puzzling ways, making decisions that you can't comprehend. You might also come across particularly puzzling questions on a test or quiz — these are the hard ones, taking a long time to figure out and requiring a lot of thought. Puzzling comes from the verb puzzle, whose origin is a bit of a puzzle itself. Some experts guess that it comes from pose, formed the way nuzzle is from nose.
Vocabulary lists containing puzzling
Strange
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Strange
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Strange
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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.
Nguyen Minh Dong, a former Volkswagen emissions engineer who now advises on electrification, called the rush to ban fossil fuel bikes in Hanoi "puzzling".
From Barron's • May 19, 2026
The paper, which was published April 27 in Nature Neuroscience, answers a puzzling question about the mechanism controlling this long-observed cerebral movement.
From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2026
This step-by-step breakup helps explain puzzling features seen elsewhere on Earth.
From Science Daily • Apr. 29, 2026
The puzzling question of whether sleeping and waking are actually the same thing remains unanswered, but the powerful lure of sleep—soothing and with the promise of unknowing—is clear.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
He let his fingers feel along the length of chain as far as they were able, still puzzling over where Van Eck had brought him.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
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.
