Befuddlement

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state of being befuddled. countable, uncountable

    "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."

  2. 2
    confusion resulting from failure to understand wordnet

Example

More examples

"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."

Etymology

From befuddle + -ment.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.