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
But law scholars are split on the issue that opens the door to a murky legal maze pitting the reach of a presidential pardon against the scope of the Fifth Amendment.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
“But in front of the sands, curved from the rocks at one end to the cliffs at the other, is a maze of rocky reef—a treacherous, sword-sharp, boat-ripping reef.”
From "Nim’s Island" by Wendy Orr
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
From mazes of cubicles to plentiful lush balconies, office designers keep re-envisioning spaces to support our professional lives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 5, 2026
Universal plans to swap out occasionally the mazes in Horror Unleashed, which will open a second location in Chicago in 2027.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 28, 2025
“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
His vow recorded, sudden through the church Ran with fleet foot a lady mazed with joy, Crying, 'A maiden babe! and lo, the queen Late dying lives and thrives!'
From Legends of the Saxon Saints by Aubrey De Vere
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
It certainly did not look imposing—a mass of spidery tubes mazing round a bulky black box, which was, Lance guessed, some new type of generator.
From Astounding Stories, February, 1931 by Harry Bates
Oh! what tones, What mazing sight is this!
From Count Alarcos; a Tragedy by Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield
The mountain barrier ahead, looming darkly forbidding in the starlight, with its mazing hollows and woodland crowns, was incapable of inspiration at the moment.
From The Forfeit by Ridgwell Cullum
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.
