perplex
Americanverb (used with object)
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to cause to be puzzled or bewildered over what is not understood or certain; confuse mentally.
Her strange response perplexed me.
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to make complicated or confused, as a matter or question.
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to hamper with complications, confusion, or uncertainty.
verb
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to puzzle; bewilder; confuse
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to complicate
to perplex an issue
Other Word Forms
- perplexer noun
Etymology
Origin of perplex
First recorded in 1585–95; back formation from perplexed
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.
It’s both perplexing and extremely telling that “Hamnet” doesn’t let the viewer see the world through Hamnet’s eyes until the boy is near death, cast into a world between ours and the next one.
From Salon
As someone who believed that true love is worth fighting for, living by the words that nothing worth having comes easy, I felt perplexed.
From Los Angeles Times
We see the brothers standing in the center, unharmed; the flames reaching out to afflict everyone around them; and the observers on high looking perplexed.
They enlisted language experts to interpret old anatomical works written in French, Italian and Latin, sometimes in a perplexing blend of several languages.
From Science Daily
This wasn't the ancient amphitheatre of Herodium down the road, but it was a sporting spectacle all the same, twisting and turning, bewildering and perplexing.
From BBC
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.
