puzzling

[ puhz-ling ]

adjective

1. confusing or baffling:

   a puzzling answer.

noun

1. the skill or pastime of constructing or working crossword or other puzzles.

Other Words From

• puzzling·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of puzzling¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; puzzle + -ing ²

Example Sentences

But it was also their most puzzling and ineffective performance.

From BBC

This question has been puzzling legal experts since the Delhi High Court suggested this week that the notification banning the novel’s import - issued in 1988 - might no longer be valid, as the government couldn't locate it.

From BBC

And those puzzling propositions need extra pondering.

From Los Angeles Times

Bettina Brendel, whose mammoth, six-panel 1969 painting “Particles or Waves?” gave the show its title, attempts with mixed success to evoke the foundational duality’s puzzling contradictions, laying out a sequence of crosshatch marks, jagged stripes and swollen curves.

From Los Angeles Times

“It is the most puzzling, wonderful, rewarding thing I think we’ve seen in baseball in many, many years,” Vin Scully exclaimed on the air after the fifth of those shutouts, a 1-0 win over the Mets in New York, adding: “And somehow this youngster from Mexico, with the pixie smile on his face, acts like he’s pitching batting practice.”

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• ambiguous
• baffling
• bewildering
• difficult
• incomprehensible
• inexplicable
• mystifying
• obscure
• perplexing
• surprising
• unclear
• unfathomable