PERPLEXING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does perplexing mean? 

• PERPLEXING (adjective)
  The adjective PERPLEXING has 1 sense:

1. lacking clarity of meaning; causing confusion or perplexity

  Familiarity information: PERPLEXING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PERPLEXING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking clarity of meaning; causing confusion or perplexity

Synonyms:

confusing; perplexing; puzzling

Context example:

a puzzling statement

Similar:

unclear (not clear to the mind)

 Context examples 

The calculations revealed that such a model can explain the perplexing spatially clustered orbits of some TNOs.

(Mystery orbits in outermost reaches of solar system not caused by ‘Planet Nine’, University of Cambridge)

Holmes was silent and buried in thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds himself in a perplexing position.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The unexpected had swept its wizardry over the face of things, changing the perspective, juggling values, and shuffling the real and the unreal into perplexing confusion.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Continuing examination of these still-perplexing seasonal dark streaks with a powerful camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows they exist only on slopes steep enough for dry grains to descend the way they do on faces of active dunes.

(Recurring Martian Streaks: Flowing Sand, Not Water?, NASA)

Her voice was not unsteady; but her mind was in all the perturbation that such a development of self, such a burst of threatening evil, such a confusion of sudden and perplexing emotions, must create.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)