noun
Etymology
Origin of puzzlement
Explanation
When you're feeling confused, you're experiencing puzzlement. Many people have a sense of puzzlement during their first day at a brand new job, while they are trying to figure out how to please the boss and work the coffee machine. A state of puzzlement is familiar to anyone who's ever been literally lost (on the streets of an unfamiliar city), or figuratively lost (sitting in the wrong math class). If you're puzzled, baffled, confused, or befuddled — that's puzzlement. There's some puzzlement among word experts about where exactly this word comes from. They know puzzle came first, from the earlier pusle, "bewilder," but beyond that its origin is a puzzle.
Vocabulary lists containing puzzlement
Shiloh
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"The Open Window" and "One in a Million"
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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.
Experts familiar with Morocco's security apparatus expressed puzzlement at the absence of reinforcements from the police or the powerful military, even as migrants began pouring into Fnideq at the start of the week.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
The first trailer drew massive viewership online, though some fans expressed puzzlement at the show’s new look and feel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
Social media responded to the warning with puzzlement: “I get it. It was like 49 degrees and sunny this morning. It’s tough in these streets.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2026
It’s time to turn your puzzlement and distress into legal action.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 11, 2026
The dwarf was blinking at them, blank-faced, with puzzlement in his mismatched eyes.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
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.
