confounding

[ kon-foun-ding, kuhn- ]

adjective

1. perplexing or bewildering:

   He’s hosting an evening of readings from some of the most sensational and confounding cases of Sherlock Holmes.

2. throwing someone or something into confusion or disorder:

   Still in shock, his wife broke the confounding news that their only son had been killed by a stray bullet.

3. Statistics. interacting with both the dependent and independent variables in an experiment or study, making it impossible to determine a causal effect between them:

   The authors list potential confounding factors, but it is not clear from the paper whether all of these were controlled for in the analyses.

noun

1. the act of perplexing, bewildering, causing confusion or disorder, etc.:

   The Jaredite civilization is supposed to have formed in the wake of the miraculous confounding of languages at the Tower of Babel.

2. the act of treating or viewing different things as if they were the same:

   I have always found the confounding of Christmas and Hanukkah disturbing.

Other Words From

• con·found·ing·ly adverb
• un·con·found·ing adjective
• un·con·found·ing·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of confounding¹

First recorded in 1425–75; confound ( def ) + -ing ²( def ) for the adjective senses; confound ( def ) + -ing ¹( def ) for the noun senses

Example Sentences

Lately, filmmaker Robert Zemeckis has been a somewhat confounding figure.

From Los Angeles Times

They scored five times in a fifth-inning rally fueled by shockingly poor Yankees defense, including a dropped line drive in center field from Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole’s confounding decision to not cover first base.

From Los Angeles Times

It is also, by far, the most confounding.

From Los Angeles Times

The county, she said, can be confounding.

From Los Angeles Times

Morris has a talent like few others at getting us to see something from the outside and the inside simultaneously, so that even the most politically fraught of issues — waging war, torture — can seem inextricably bound to the confounding depths of the subjects speaking into his trademarked interview device, the Interrotron.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• confusion
• error
• misconception
• misinterpretation
• misjudgment
• mistake
• mix up