Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To confuse or trouble with uncertainty or doubt. See Synonyms at puzzle.
- v. To make confusedly intricate; complicate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Intricate; difficult.
- n. A difficulty; an entanglement; something hard to understand; a perplexity.
- To make intricate; involve; entangle; make complicated and difficult to be understood or unraveled.
- To embarrass; puzzle; distract; bewilder; trouble with suspense, anxiety, or ambiguity.
- Synonyms To complicate, tangle, snarl.
- Puzzle, etc. (see embarrass), confuse, harass, pose, nonplus, put to a stand, mystify.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To involve; to entangle; to make intricate or complicated, and difficult to be unraveled or understood.
- v. To embarrass; to puzzle; to distract; to bewilder; to confuse; to trouble with ambiguity, suspense, or anxiety.
- v. To plague; to vex; to tormen.
- adj. obsolete Intricate; difficult.
WordNet 3.0
- v. be a mystery or bewildering to
- v. make more complicated
Etymologies
- From Old French, from Latin perplexus ("entangled, confused"), from per ("through") + plexus, perfect passive participle of plectō ("plait, weave, braid"). (Wiktionary)
- Back-formation from Middle English perplexed, puzzled; see perplexed. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Thus, our "unfinished feeling" represents in itself an obscure demand for a resolution of the unadjusted; it corresponds to that inner compulsion which operates upon the imperfect consciousness of the dreamer, or upon the mentality of any person seeking the solution of a problem or "perplex," either asleep, or awake -- as I trust you all still remain.”
“The resulting image is compelling, perplex and idiosyncratic; a pagan Catholic Cirque du Soleil.”
The Huffington Post: John Seed: Matthew Couper: A Devotional Painter in Las Vegas
“It would be useless and unkind to perplex you with my literary troubles.”
“What I am going to write I know will only perplex you, and yet I must of course tell you.”
“Despite its prevalence, the condition still seems to perplex many people.”
The Huffington Post: Glenn D. Braunstein, M.D.: Understanding Stuttering
“If there ever is a message from SETI it will be an alien one cup coffee maker brand name that will perplex the scientific community for centuries.”
“It doesn't help that we live in a time with infinite choices, information and potential directions -- which can perplex the most focused people.”
“They're complicated, and the complications both perplex and suit them.”
The Huffington Post: James Wallenstein: An Interview About The Arriviste
“Indeed, I couldn't even work out how to remove the sides on Georgia's cot in order to turn it into a "big-girl bed", I had to wait for Cam to do it screwdrivers perplex me.”
“Yet the striker continues to perplex and bemuse in equal measure.”
The Guardian: Manchester City's rivals enjoy putting the boot into upstarts
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘perplex’.
-
Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
-
2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 more...
-
Confusually
???????????????????
baffle, farrago, confound, befuddle, daze, disorient, discombobulate, stupefy, perplex, mystify, bewilder, boggle and 134 more...
-
GRE Study guide
Going through the Magoosh website, words I pulled from the verbal section. 2012.
magnanimous, correlate, anglicized, simulacrum, tantamount, obsequiousness, subterfuge, vehement, vociferous, benign, concomitant, veracity and 83 more...
-
I am : mystified
As in, 'confused' and 'entranced' both.
mystify, entrance, enrapture, puzzle, ensorcell, confound, mesmerize, confuse, bewitch, captivate, beguile, fascinate and 11 more...
-
intueri's Words
inveigle, dolorous, archly, feckless, resplendent, concatenation, peripatetic, delightful, cookie, fey, ephemeral, effervescent and 347 more...
-
X Marks the Spot
Words ending in "x" (except proper nouns and trademarks)
ax, ex, ox, soapbox, smallpox, six, sex, sax, rex, pressbox, climax, chickenpox and 208 more...
-
eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
-
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
-
NTB
chaos, Sagittarius, aether, magic, jester, fool, random, delirium, fire, life, cosmic, riddle and 120 more...
-
Misc. Words.
Words I like to use, words I like but may forget.
corrosion, astonish, solace, ferment, continuum, kinesthetic, permeate, repose, caprice, cardinal, discourse, surrender and 610 more...
-
soph2's Words
serendipity, audacity, groak, petrichor, lethologica, loganamnosis, agnuopia, dysania, dysphagia, neologism, incredulity, harbinger and 246 more...
-
mango22's Words
avalanche, apple, arrividerci, awry, adamant, asunder, barter, beloved, calm, cataclysmic, catastrophe, coat and 143 more...
-
cloudjuice's Words
schadenfreude, sordid, promulgate, erratic, erroneous, amalgamate, sesquipedalian, incongruous, psychosis, etymology, simulacrum, serendipity and 988 more...
-
lemongrass's Words
ineffable, diode, abraxas, neologism, algorithm, schadenfreude, heresiology, vague, cathartic, quixotic, apocrypha?, quintessence and 103 more...
-
My GRE
concomitant, mendacity, corollary, mandate, ascertain, exacerbate, substantiate, perennial, exemplify, hegemony, acrimonious, repertoire and 653 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for perplex.
Prolagus See also perplexed. Aug 29, 2008