perplex
/pəˈplɛks
/verb [with object]
1Make (someone) feel completely baffled: she was perplexed by her husband’s moodiness...
- He was perplexed by her question and it more than a little baffled him.
- The 67-year-old director seems perplexed by the question.
- The children were perplexed by her unexpected good humor, but they admired her good-natured bravery in the face of personal tragedy.
Synonyms
puzzle, baffle, mystify, bemuse, bewilder, confound, confuse, nonplus, disconcert, dumbfound, throw, throw/catch someone off balance, get, exercise, worry, befuddle, fuddle, addle, fog
informal flummox, be all Greek to, discombobulate, stump, bamboozle, floor, beat, faze, make someone scratch their head, fox
archaic wilder, distract, gravel, maze, pose, cause to be at a stand
puzzled, baffled, mystified, bemused, bewildered, confused, nonplussed, disconcerted, dumbfounded, worried, at a loss, at sea, befuddled, fuddled, addled
informal flummoxed, bamboozled, discombobulated, stumped, fazed, beaten
Canadian & Australian/New Zealand informal bushed
archaic wildered, distracted, mazed
puzzling, baffling, mystifying, mysterious, bewildering, confusing, disconcerting, worrying, unaccountable, difficult to understand, inexplicable, impenetrable, unfathomable, paradoxical, peculiar, funny, strange, weird, odd, beyond one;
complex, complicated, difficult, hard, taxing, knotty, thorny, ticklish, involved, intricate, convoluted, labyrinthine, Byzantine
informal spiny, mind-bending
archaic wildering
1.1 dated Complicate or confuse (a matter): they were perplexing a subject plain in itself
Origin
Late 15th century (as the adjective perplexed): from the obsolete adjective perplex 'bewildered', from Latin perplexus 'entangled', based on plexus 'interwoven', from the verb plectere.