baffling
Britishadjective
Other Word Forms
Explanation
If something is baffling, it's completely confusing or mysterious. You might find your friend's hatred for the taste of chocolate utterly baffling. A good mystery novel begins with a baffling crime — one that seems at first nearly impossible to solve. You might also find your math homework baffling or wander around the baffling snarl of streets in a city with no idea where you are. The earliest meaning of baffling was nautical, describing winds blowing in all directions. It comes from the verb baffle, which first meant "to disgrace" before it came to mean "to confuse."
Vocabulary lists containing baffling
This Week in Words: January 27 - February 2, 2018
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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.
So what better time to drop a new album full of arcane jokes, baffling vocal affects and light conspiracy theorizing?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
If you find that phrase baffling, consider yourself fortunate.
From Salon ● Jul. 26, 2026
It will go down as a baffling missed opportunity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
Stand-in captain Joe Root's tactics were baffling on a second morning that began England's spiral.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026
It is perhaps one of the most baffling phenomena in history.
From "Where Things Come Back" by John Corey Whaley
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.
