mystification

[ mis-tuh-fi-key-shuhn ]

noun

an act or instance of purposely causing someone to be perplexed or bewildered by playing on their ignorance, gullibility, or naiveté: As a mask for banality or an agent of mystification, the word “dialectical” is really quite wonderful.The author put titles at the top of certain pages—in a spirit of mystification, I suppose, since they do not illuminate the reader.
an act or instance of making something mysterious or obscure: Rejecting any effort to understand Hitler or the Holocaust can lead to a mystification of the past that thwarts all efforts to learn from it.

the state of being perplexed or puzzled: I felt pretty silly when, after a week of mystification, my techie friend explained how the remote worked.

Origin of mystification

First recorded in 1810–20; from French mysti(fier) (see mystify ) + -fication

Mr. Longdon's momentary mystification was perhaps partly but the natural effect of constitutional prudence.
The Awkward Age | Henry James
For a time mystification, then changing to weird fear, as a sense of the supernatural stole over him.
The Vee-Boers | Mayne Reid
The sanguine confidence of the community had not subsided into doubt so much as into helpless mystification.
In Connection with the De Willoughby Claim | Frances Hodgson Burnett
That was a case of high mystification, of jugglery worthy of a street-corner mountebank.
Mysterious Psychic Forces | Camille Flammarion
And all life appears to Riabovich an absurd mystification and seems thoroughly senseless.
Contemporary Russian Novelists | Serge Persky

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