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puzzle
[ puhz-uhl ]
noun
- a toy, problem, or other contrivance designed to amuse by presenting difficulties to be solved by ingenuity or patient effort.
- something puzzling; a puzzling question, matter, or person.
- a puzzled or perplexed condition; bewilderment.
Did you do the puzzle in the newspaper today?
verb (used with object)
- to put (someone) at a loss; mystify; confuse; baffle:
Her attitude puzzles me.
Synonyms: confound
- to frustrate or confound, as the understanding; perplex:
The problem puzzled him for weeks.
- to exercise (oneself, one's brain, etc.) over some problem or matter.
- Archaic. to make intricate or complicated.
verb (used without object)
- to be perplexed or confused.
- to ponder or study over some perplexing problem or matter.
verb phrase
- to solve by careful study or effort:
I was unable to puzzle out the message.
puzzle
/ ˈpʌzəl /
verb
- to perplex or be perplexed
- intrfoll byover to attempt the solution (of); ponder (about)
he puzzled over her absence
- trusually foll byout to solve by mental effort
he puzzled out the meaning of the inscription
noun
- a person or thing that puzzles
- a problem that cannot be easily or readily solved
- the state or condition of being puzzled
- a toy, game, or question presenting a problem that requires skill or ingenuity for its solution See jigsaw puzzle Chinese puzzle
Derived Forms
- ˈpuzzling, adjective
Other Words From
- puzzled·ly adverb
- puzzled·ness noun
- un·puzzle verb (used with object) unpuzzled unpuzzling
Word History and Origins
Origin of puzzle1
Word History and Origins
Origin of puzzle1
Synonym Study
Example Sentences
Rereading is like looking at the answer to a puzzle, rather than doing it yourself, he says.
This cocktail hour interactive exhibition changes each year, but last year it involved attendees competing against one another in a cookie-cutter-themed puzzle challenge designed by artist Zak Kitnick.
At first, chronicling daily symptoms was like starting a brand-new puzzle.
He’s given us something to contemplate, a puzzle we must return to more than once to begin to apprehend.
While that was the intent of the puzzle, it wasn’t explicitly stated.
For passengers, beyond the statistics lies a puzzle that has persisted for years.
Working on his own piece of the intelligence puzzle, Stasio racked up impressive victories.
When he looks at the neatly compiled jigsaw puzzle of his life, however, he feels empty, deeply dissatisfied.
But their action just proved another confounding piece of this negligent puzzle.
Without access to the site, reporters, social media, and governments put together pieces of the puzzle.
He was an Englishman and came to the valley by chance and settled here, and to his dying day he was a puzzle to the people.
The chief puzzle of the problem is that nothing turns out as we were told it would turn out.
Something seemed to puzzle him, for he was frowning, but by and by the old cynical smile came back.
It did not puzzle the Colonel at all to know where the sperrit came from, and he did not like the child the less because of it.
I can read a chapter to father in the Bible, but the hard names sadly puzzle me.
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