confused

[ kuhn-fyoozd ]

adjective

1. not thinking coherently or rationally; bewildered; perplexed:

   My attempt to explain was met with confused stares and shrugging shoulders.

   Hopelessly confused, I just tossed my trash into what I thought was the right receptacle.

2. incorrectly differentiated, identified, or associated:

   You’re getting him confused with another player with the same name—this one plays for the Twins.

   In this lesson, students learn the frequently confused words their, they’re, and there.

3. without order; jumbled:

   Over time, the original neat lines of tents grew into a confused tangle of canvas-roofed shelters.

   What was once an imposing fortress is now just a confused heap of erect and fallen stones.

4. disconcerted, perturbed, or ashamed:

   I emerged from the office red-faced and confused.

5. expressed in a way that is not easily understood:

   The novel plods along trying to provide hopelessly confused technical detail, much of which is blatantly impossible according to the elementary laws of physics.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of confuse.

Other Words From

• con·fus·ed·ly [k, uh, n-, fyoo, -zid-lee, -, fyoozd, -], adverb
• con·fus·ed·ness noun
• pre·con·fus·ed·ly adverb
• su·per·con·fused adjective
• un·con·fused adjective
• un·con·fus·ed·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of confused¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; confuse ( def ) + -ed ²( def ) for the adjective senses; confuse ( def ) + -ed ¹( def ) for the verb sense

Example Sentences

When McCarthy sent her the manuscript for “All the Pretty Horses” in the 1980s, she was confused by how much the novel was “full of me, and yet isn’t me.”

From Los Angeles Times

Could Thomas Tuchel possibly be more confused about who to pick?

From BBC

Air traffic control systems handling the flight were confused by a duplicate code - DVL - representing both Deauville in France and Devil's Lake in North Dakota, USA.

From BBC

There have been concerns about pronunciation and whether some visitors might be confused.

From BBC

Sometimes they’re confused enough to output obvious errors, as Apple researchers found when asking the models to solve math problems written in plain English.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• baffled
• befuddled
• bewildered
• dazed
• disorganized
• distracted
• muddled
• perplexed
• perturbed
• puzzled