Confounding

adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act by which things are confounded, or confused.
  2. 2
    The process by which an apparent association between an exposure and an outcome is actually explained by another factor.

    "Confounding is defined as the confusion or distortion of measures of association between exposure and outcome as a result of third (or more) variable(s)."

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of confound form-of, gerund, participle, present
Adjective
  1. 1
    Confusing, bewildering, baffling or perplexing.

    "We have to with a Heart ſearching God, who will find out every unworthy Communicant to his utter Shame and Confuſion ; when God examins ſuch, his Queſtions will be Nonpluſſing and Confounding,[…]"

Adjective
  1. 1
    that confounds or contradicts or confuses wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
amazinganswerappallingastonishingastoundingbafflement

Antonyms

All antonyms
clear

Example

More examples

"Try to disassociate all the confounding variables."

Etymology

By surface analysis, confound + -ing.

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