feeling or exhibiting an inability to understand; bewildered; perplexed in a disordered state; mixed up; jumbled lacking sufficient mental abilities for independent living, esp through old age
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025
con•fused /kənˈfyuzd/USA pronunciation
adj. (of a person) having difficulty understanding or doing something:The two confused tourists got lost in the mall.
con•fus•ed•ly /kənˈfyuzɪdli/USA pronunciation adv.
con•fus•ed•ness, n. [uncountable]
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025- hard to understand; mixed up;
unclear:Your writing seems confused.
con•fus•ed•ness, n. [uncountable]
con•fuse /kənˈfyuz/USA pronunciation
v. [~ + object], -fused, -fus•ing.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025- to cause to make a mistake;
mix up: The flood of questions confused me. - to make hard to understand, unclear, or indistinct:Let's not confuse matters.
- to fail to distinguish between (two things):I always confuse the twins.[~ + object + with + object]I always confuse one twin with the other.
- confuse is a verb, confusion is a noun, confused and confusing are adjectives:All those numbers just confused me. The airport was a scene of confusion. Confused students looked at one another nervously. It was a confusing homework problem.
con•fuse
(kən fyo̅o̅z′),USA pronunciation v.t., -fused, -fus•ing.
con•fus′a•ble, adj.
con•fus′a•bil′i•ty, n.
con•fus′a•bly, adv.
con•fus•ed•ly
(kən fyo̅o̅′zid lē, -fyo̅o̅zd′-),USA pronunciation adv.
con•fus′ed•ness, n.
- to perplex or bewilder:The flood of questions confused me.
- to make unclear or indistinct:The rumors and angry charges tended to confuse the issue.
- to fail to distinguish between; associate by mistake;
confound:to confuse dates; He always confuses the twins. - to disconcert or abash:His candor confused her.
- to combine without order;
jumble;
disorder:Try not to confuse the papers on the desk. - [Archaic.]to bring to ruin or naught.
- Latin confūsus, past participle of confundere; see confound
- Anglo-French confus (with -ed -ed2 maintaining participial sense)
- back formation from confused (since early 19th century), Middle English confused
con•fus′a•bil′i•ty, n.
con•fus′a•bly, adv.
- 1.See corresponding entry in Unabridged mystify, nonplus. Confuse, disconcert, embarrass imply temporary interference with the clear working of one's mind. To confuse is to produce a general bewilderment:to confuse someone by giving complicated directions.To disconcert is to disturb one's mind by irritation, perplexities, etc.:to disconcert someone by asking irrelevant questions.To embarrass is to cause one to be ill at ease or uncomfortable, so that one's usual judgment and presence of mind desert one:to embarrass someone by unexpected rudeness.
- 4.See corresponding entry in Unabridged mortify, shame.
- 5.See corresponding entry in Unabridged disarray, disarrange, disturb.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
to bewilder; perplex to mix up (things, ideas, etc); jumble to make unclear: he confused his talk with irrelevant details to fail to recognize the difference between; mistake (one thing) for another to disconcert; embarrass to cause to become disordered: the enemy ranks were confused by gas