Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The act of confusing or the state of being confused: Backstage confusion made the rehearsal difficult.
- n. An instance of being confused: "After his awakening to Chicano identity, he briefly mastered his inner confusions and found an articulate voice” ( David C. Unger).
- n. Psychology Impaired orientation with respect to time, place, or person; a disturbed mental state.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of confusing or mingling together two or more things or notions properly separate; the act or process of becoming confused or thrown together in disorder, so as to conceal or obliterate original differences, etc.
- n. The state of being confused or mixed together, literally or figuratively; an indiscriminate or disorderly mingling; disorder; tumultuous condition: as, the confusion of the crowd.
- n. The state of having confused or indistinct ideas; lack of clearness of thought.
- n. Perturbation of mind; embarrassment; abashment; trouble; distraction.
- n. Overthrow; destruction; ruin.
- n. One who confuses; a confounder; a troubler.
- n. In civil law, merger of two titles in the same person.
- n. In civil law and Scots law, an extinction of an obligation or servitude by the fact that the two persons whose divided position is requisite for the continuance of a debt become one person, for example, when one becomes the heir of the other.
- n. Synonyms Derangement, jumble, chaos, turmoil.
- n. Perplexity, bewilderment, distraction, mortification.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The state of being mixed or blended so as to produce indistinctness or error; indistinct combination; disorder; tumult.
- n. The state of being abashed or disconcerted; loss self-possession; perturbation; shame.
- n. Overthrow; defeat; ruin.
- n. obsolete One who confuses; a confounder.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an act causing a disorderly combination of elements with identities lost and distinctions blended
- n. a mistake that results from taking one thing to be another
- n. a mental state characterized by a lack of clear and orderly thought and behavior
- n. a feeling of embarrassment that leaves you confused
- n. disorder resulting from a failure to behave predictably
Etymologies
- From Old French confusion. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Here, to simplify the discussion, we are using the term confusion in place of unawareness (ignorance), but without any connotation of disorganization, disorientation, or dementia.”
“Johnson's divisions, and one from Pickett's corps, flung itself upon it, and drove Crawford's and Ayre's division in confusion from the field for nearly two miles.”
“Lieutenant and boat's crew put off in confusion from the sinking vessel, and begged of Commodore Ingraham to cease firing, telling him that the water was already up to the berth-deck, and that they surrendered.”
“I think the name confusion can only help us, right?”
“This article demonstrates that a source of this confusion is a misunderstanding of the nature of a conviction and the difference between a fact necessarily decided to establish an element of the crime and an extraneous fact that appears in the record of conviction.”
“Anyway, she walks through this circle of standing stones and appears back in 1743 where the first person she sees when she emerges from her confusion is a gentlemen in 18th century army officers 'uniform, who looks just like her husband.”
“Your confusion is a function of your reliance on simple-minded stereotypes.”
“Adding to her confusion is the revelation that the current film is a remake of a doomed polish production that was never finished due to an unspeakable tragedy …”
Inland Empire: Laura Dern: Justin Theroux: David Lynch: DVD: Synopsis | SciFi UK Review
“Adding to the confusion is the franticly changing, seemingly unrelated - and tedious - details when describing the characters.”
“Adding to the confusion is the way my mysteries are handled at the Borders chain.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘confusion’.
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Possible side effects may include...
night terrors, anxiety, suicidality, delirium, vapors, insanity, paranoia, paralysis, insomnia, choler, melancholy, outbursts and 33 more...
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Intertanglement
A list of bejumble and minglement.
intertanglement, mixture, commingle, commixtion, immixture, hodgepodge, hotchpotch, intermixture, medley, minglement, mingle-mangle, blendure and 60 more...
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Lifehacking
Start with the effect, the what; signal-patch known-belief spirit. "Write my program, routine me." New cue vs brand loyalty. Ritual Ceremony Design Technologies, Inc.
confusion, misdirection, fractionation, disequilibrium, relaxation, repetition, impassioned, intensity, suddenly, shock, concentration, focus and 118 more...
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ChortleGiggleSnort
Significant Words- Guiding you on your path to Snazzibility
flimsy, feeble, ranting, ramble, narky, snazzy, yoghurt, bulbous, pustule, globulous, geranium, megalomaniac and 521 more...
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National Library Agenda Summit
nla2006, summit, agenda, library, ala, diversity, education, learning, continuous, scan, environmental, plan and 646 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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Ultrapow
A mighty myriad of Mister Mxyzptlk manifestation. This list leans towards one-word superpowers and occasionally the ridiculous.
Spin-off lists: Ultrafrow - absurd powers, Flossational...telepathy, psychometry, retrocognition, precognition, clairvoyance, mediumship, illusions, mind-control, mindblast, telekinesis, thermokinesis, quantokinesis and 142 more...
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miltonic
liberty, froth-becurlèd, host, huge-bellied, aghast, rills, gladsom, wrathfull, ordain, thunder-clasping, ruddy, warble and 264 more...
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parlerodermime's Words
loquacious, orange, lackadaisical, rhythm, esoterrorist, contrary, enchanted, extraordinary, nymph, chatter, incessant, time and 168 more...
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Noesis
Mind or Mind Altering
example: psychotomimetic
( _mark, personal list, randomness )
related:
noetic, entheogen, psychonautics, infinite, bewilderment, mystification, stupefication, enhanced, altered, perception, simulation, network and 212 more... -
Calendar Stories
Month by month in other cultures.
vendémiaire, brumaire, frimaire, nivôse, pluviôse, ventôse, germinal, floréal, prairial, messidor, thermidor, fructidor and 107 more...
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List.001
New word list
imperative, republic, subtle, Androgynous, licentious, auspices, avengeance, cabal, sibilant, Entropy, caduceus, ludicrous, and 170 more...
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US - national anthem vocabulary
All words and phrases (except the most common articles and prepositions)
For a word frequency analysis see:
air, band, foe, banner, battle, battle's~confusion, beam, blest, blood, blow, bomb, brave and 174 more... -
song starters (twisted song starters)
Words/phrases inextricably tied to the songs they're in, sparking off earworms here there & everywhere (there's one, to start with). Only my own personal examples.
Do guess the more p...as i recall, here there and ev..., firestarter, final countdown, every now and then, turn around, pipe wrench, goodness gracious, insane, fuck you, scat, 21 seconds and 80 more...
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Obstinate Buffaloes
Words that you wouldn't think described collections of animals
sleuth, grist, obstinacy, kaleidoscope, quiver, business, earth, troubling, smack, surfeit, confusion, dissimulation and 19 more...
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punkin words
mercurial, fickle, capricious, cancer, adoring, crabby, sleepy, blue, wandering, manic, hug, love and 33 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for confusion.
PossibleUnderscore And there he sits, munching and gnawing, and looking up at the great cross on the summit of St. Paul's Cathedral, glittering above a red-and-violet-tinted cloud of smoke. From the boy's face one might suppose that sacred emblem to be, in his eyes, the crowning confusion of the great, confused city--so golden, so high up, so far out of his reach.
-Charles Dickens Bleak House
Another of my very favourite quotes. Jul 26, 2009
rasdawta this word comes to mind when i think of how to share lists with others on wordie. hmmm.... Feb 17, 2009
whichbe I know someone who claims to have this ability to overwhelmingly confuse and befuddle others. Also sometimes called incomprehensibility. May 15, 2008
skipvia A group of weasels Nov 15, 2007