perplex
Americanverb (used with object)
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perplexes,
present (3rd person singular)
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perplexed,
past participle, past
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perplexing
present participle
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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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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perplexsimple
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perplexessimple
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have perplexedperfect
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has perplexedperfect
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am perplexingprogressive
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are perplexingprogressive
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is perplexingprogressive
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have been perplexingperfect progressive
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has been perplexingperfect progressive
Past
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perplexedsimple
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had perplexedperfect
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was perplexingprogressive
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were perplexingprogressive
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had been perplexingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of perplex
First recorded in 1585–95; back formation from perplexed
Explanation
To perplex someone is to amaze, baffle, bewilder, dumbfound, flummox, mystify, or puzzle them. Perplexing things are hard to understand. If you're perplexed, then you're confused. Different things perplex different people. In football, a tricky defense will perplex a quarterback. Complicated formulas can perplex math students. When people do weird things, it can be perplexing. Anything hard to understand might perplex you. Perplexing also means to make something more complicated. So when you see the word perplex, think "Huh?"
Vocabulary lists containing perplex
List 1
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In a Pickle: Words for When You're in Trouble
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
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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.
See Examples For:
The artifacts from Sanxingdui, as the site is known, stirred questions that still perplex experts four decades later.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
Joao Neves, Kvaratskhelia and Mendes ended up on the left flank in close proximity - an asymmetrical set-up intended to perplex Liverpool.
From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2026
Zika, a mosquito-borne virus first identified in 1947 in a Rhesus macaque monkey, continues to perplex scientists in many ways nearly 80 years later.
From Salon ● Feb. 3, 2025
This pattern of abruptly rejecting safe foods can perplex parents and clinicians alike and, on the surface, can look like dieting.
From Slate ● Jan. 4, 2025
“You puzzle me, Jane: your look and tone of sorrowful audacity perplex and pain me. I want an explanation.”
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
Illegal shootings are “an overriding issue that just perplexes the heck out of me,” said Brian Millsap, an ornithologist at New Mexico State University.
From New York Times ● Aug. 3, 2023
She perplexes the heart, in part because she's more than simply a Don Juan figure.
From Salon ● Nov. 27, 2022
“It’s one of the questions that perplexes me.”
From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2022
As for the current disparity in white NFL coaches compared to minorities, it still perplexes Holcomb.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 26, 2021
"It is that perplexes me; for I know these country gentlemen," and his voice sharpened to the bitterest sneer.
From Lawrence Clavering by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
Steiner is perplexed about the attacks on the school: “I’m not sure the Bauhaus is the number one topic for the people of Dessau,” she adds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
One of his best friends, Thupten Chonyi, was perplexed Lobga skipped that march between China’s Consulate and the U.N. on opposite sides of Manhattan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
“We are a bit perplexed by the news,” they wrote.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 3, 2026
What supporters will perhaps be most perplexed by is the timing of Howe's departure.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
The girl, frightened and perplexed, could hardly muster a shake of the head.
From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart
Matthew McConaughey stars as an Oklahoma honeymaker in a perplexing film that also features Kurt Russell and Angelina LookingGlass.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
"Every step further back in time makes the puzzle more perplexing: How did the Universe produce supermassive black holes so quickly?"
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
The weakness in the won then, has been perplexing to many forex analysts.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 3, 2026
"This dark, industrial location as her wedding venue couldn't be more perplexing," Gaffney said.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
And yet persons here and there declined to migrate; that, even to those involved, constituted a perplexing irrationality.
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
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.
