perplex

[per-pleks]

verb (used with object)

1. to cause to be puzzled or bewildered over what is not understood or certain; confuse mentally.

   Her strange response perplexed me.

   Synonyms: confound, mystify

2. to make complicated or confused, as a matter or question.

   Synonyms: snarl, tangle

3. to hamper with complications, confusion, or uncertainty.

   Synonyms: bother, annoy, vex

perplex

/ pəˈplɛks /

verb

1. to puzzle; bewilder; confuse

2. to complicate

   to perplex an issue

Other Word Forms

• perplexer noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of perplex¹

First recorded in 1585–95; back formation from perplexed

Word History and Origins

Origin of perplex¹

C15: from obsolete perplex (adj) intricate, from Latin perplexus entangled, from per- (thoroughly) + plectere to entwine

Example Sentences

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.

Read more on 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.

Read more on 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.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

They enlisted language experts to interpret old anatomical works written in French, Italian and Latin, sometimes in a perplexing blend of several languages.

Read more on 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.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• astonish 
• astound 
• baffle 
• befuddle 
• bewilder 
• complicate 
• confound 
• dumbfound 
• encumber 
• mystify 
• nonplus 
• perturb 
• puzzle 
• surprise