maze
Americannoun
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mazes
plural
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a confusing network of intercommunicating paths or passages; labyrinth.
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any complex system or arrangement that causes bewilderment, confusion, or perplexity.
Her petition was lost in a maze of bureaucratic red tape.
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a state of bewilderment or confusion.
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a winding movement, as in dancing.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a complex network of paths or passages, esp one with high hedges in a garden, designed to puzzle those walking through it Compare labyrinth
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a similar system represented diagrammatically as a pattern of lines
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any confusing network of streets, pathways, etc
a maze of paths
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a state of confusion
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of maze
1250–1300; Middle English mase, noun use of aphetic variant of amasen to amaze
Explanation
A maze is a puzzle with twists and turns, where you try to find a path from the entrance to the exit without hitting dead ends. You can walk through a maze, or let your pencil do the walking. The goal of a maze is to get through it, which means going the wrong way, retracing your steps, and choosing different paths. There are mazes that you walk through, and mazes on paper where you draw a line to the end. You can also use maze for any complicated system, like the maze of hallways and staircases in an enormous new school. Originally, maze meant "delusion or bewilderment," which captures what it's like to be inside one.
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:
"It is still essential borrowers do not delay seeking advice to navigate the mortgage maze."
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
The filmmakers don’t guide you into this world so much as they grab you by the hand and yank you into its maze while you’re still deciding whether or not you want to enter.
From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2026
To measure learning and memory, the scientists used a common laboratory experiment called the Morris water maze.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
So if you’ve been on the fence about which membership is right given the maze of checkpoint lanes, consider this your refresher course.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Doc moved through a maze of rooms with ease, the entire time keeping her eyes focused on security cameras that were stationed high on the walls.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
They navigated mazes and remembered previously encountered objects almost as effectively as younger mice, while outperforming similarly aged mice whose EP2 receptors continued functioning normally.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 3, 2026
The building, filled to its ceilings, grew increasingly dilapidated; Langley’s paranoia about suspected intruders led him to build mazes of detritus to throw them off.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
For decades, the neighborhood had an eclectic mix of residents, including a radio announcer who built mazes for children using wooden pallets and a man who started a public market.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026
In Pokémon Blue, which became popular on Nintendo Game Boy devices in the late 90s, players must navigate through a series of mazes, catch Pokémon and battle so-called “gym masters” to earn badges.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026
“Running backward, making applesauce, doing jumping jacks, gargling, blowing bubbles, slicing garlic, making a house out of playing cards, stringing popcorn, organizing furniture, drawing mazes, and making pinatas.”
From "A Tangle of Knots" by Lisa Graff
I want to assume I’m headed toward civilization, but America’s public lands are mazed with old roads that peter out far from anything.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 11, 2020
Across the patio, the mazed eyes, mind-sickness, and poignant affection between Galván and what he calls “my family”, echo down 10 years on different faces.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 8, 2019
Passing coffeehouses and boutiques, I arrived at a room mazed by long tables, with cardstock and Sharpie pens as place settings.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 13, 2018
I knew it had to do with being poor, with learning English and studying the mazed map of London.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2015
"You knows that I be tried beyond my powers, that I be mazed and dazed beyond what tongue can tell."
From The Soul of Susan Yellam by Horace Annesley Vachell
It’s mazing how quickly perspective can shift in this league.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 28, 2011
I am the rock, The spiked foundations of the plan ye rear Among the mazing stars.
From Time Magazine Archive
Even this is a guise of one of the original motives in the mazing medley, where it seems we could trace the ancestry of each if we could linger and if it really mattered.
From Symphonies and Their Meaning; Third Series, Modern Symphonies by Philip H. Goepp
Fully five miles it soared toward space, its fantastic angles and arcs and cubes and pyramids mazing in the dimensions of a totally alien geometry.
From Raiders of the Universes by Donald A. Wandrei
The rays that come to me are but faint cross lights, mazing the obscurity wherein I live.
From Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. II by Herman Melville
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.
