Standard Lemma guide

befuddlement

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

The state of being befuddled; a feeling of being dazed and perplexed due to confusion.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Examples

  • His words struck me with a sense of befuddlement that lasted until I got home.
  • 1907, Algernon Blackwood, “Max Hensig—Bacteriologist and Murderer” Chapter 4, in The Listener and Other Stories, New York: Knopf, 1917, p. 105, It was, of course, an effect of hypnotism, he remembered thinking, vaguely through the befuddlement of his drink—this culminating effect of an evil and remorseless personality acting upon one that was diseased and extra receptive.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bafflement, bewilderment, confusion, perplexity, puzzlement

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

confusion resulting from failure to understand

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bewilderment, obfuscation, puzzlement, mystification, bafflement, bemusement

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: confusion, mental confusion, confusedness, muddiness, disarray

History

Etymology

From befuddle + -ment.

Across languages

Translations

5 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Dutch: verdwaasdheid — characteristic of being befuddled
  • Dutch: verwardheid — characteristic of being befuddled
  • Dutch: verwarring — characteristic of being befuddled
  • Dutch: verdoving — characteristic of being befuddled
  • Māori: pōnānātanga — characteristic of being befuddled