Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Confusing |
ConfusingAdjective1. Causing confusion or disorientation; "a confusing jumble of road signs"; "being hospitalized can be confusing and distressing for a small child". 2. Lacking clarity of meaning; causing confusion or perplexity; "sent confusing signals to Iraq"; "perplexing to someone who knew nothing about it"; "a puzzling statement". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "confusing" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1615. (references) |
Synonyms: ConfusingSynonyms: perplexing (adj), puzzling (adj). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Confusing |
| English words defined with "confusing": babel, bedevil, befuddle, bewilderingly ♦ cacophony, chaotic, confound, confuse, confusingly, Confusive ♦ discombobulate, disconnected, disorderly, disunited ♦ electromagnetic intrusion, embroilment, entangle ♦ fox, fragmented, fuddle, fundamental ♦ imbroglio ♦ mat, mistake ♦ perplexing, profound, puzzling ♦ rigamarole, rigmarole ♦ snarl, split ♦ tangle, throw, Tower of Babel. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "confusing": base class ♦ derived class, Dutch bond ♦ Lay, Lie ♦ physiological acceleration, play lot ♦ Smith Charm ♦ three-letter acronym, tot-lot ♦ X Window System. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Always confusing your pistols with your privates (Batman Returns ; writing credit: Sam Hamm, Daniel Waters) Kid, you must be confusing me with David Selznick (Ed Wood; writing credit: Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski.) You don't know how confusing it is when someone you love so much looks like someone you hate (Look Who's Talking; writing credit: Amy Heckerling) Mother, you are confusing having sex with having your picture made (Filthy Rich; writing credit: Barry E. Blitzer; Linda Bloodworth-Thomason) Maybe you're confusing us with your imaginary friends (The Weekenders; writing credit: Douglas Langdale) | |
Lyrics | Why is everything so confusing (I'm With You; performing artist: Avril Lavigne) And I’m feeling fine, love is so confusing ("Heart of Glass"; performing artist: Blondie) Be real confusing if not, but anyway (But Anyway; performing artist: Blues Traveler) It’s simple, confusing, the truth is I'm winning but I'm losing (It's About Time; performing artist: LILLIX) You've got a way of confusing a heart (Keep Coming Back; performing artist: Richard Marx) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Homer | Dreams surely are difficult, confusing, and not everything in them is brought to pass for mankind. |
Mickey Rooney | It's confusing. I've had so many wives and so many children I don't know which house to go to first on Christmas. |
Sidney J. Harris | Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | This is getting confusing. (references) | |
If their comments are confusing or upsetting, make a point of discussing them with medical personnel. (references) | ||
Because the exact causes and symptoms of TMD are not clear, diagnosing these disorders can be confusing. (references) | ||
Business | This can be a costly, lengthy, and confusing process for the exporter and the Polish importer alike. (references) | |
The average Greek businessman interested in franchising may not be adequately informed about the system, confusing it with other business systems such as exclusive representation or joint ventures. (references) | ||
Importers of environmental technology are confronted with obstacles in form of a very complicated and confusing environmental legislation, which not only can vary between the 16 German states, but also between the countless municipalities. (references) | ||
Civil Liberties | Latvia | Independent human rights organizations argue that the law's provisions are contradictory and confusing. (references) |
Economic History | Ecuador | Efforts are also underway to untangle the confusing web of Ecuadorian telecommunication agencies. (references) |
Moldova | Commercial Law: Moldovan commercial law is a confusing patchwork of narrow statutes and an outdated civil code. (references) | |
Human Rights | Chad | Applicable law can be confusing, as courts often tend to blend the formal French-derived legal code with traditional practices. (references) |
Portugal | Many factors contributed to the backlog problem, including the underutilization of technology (case folders are still sewn closed by a large number of "needlemen/women"), the confusing and drawn out method of serving subpoenas, and the reluctance of the justice system to accept change. (references) | |
Political Economy | PAKISTAN | In the market, pricing is complicated by a complex and confusing tax structure consisting of multiple taxes and customs duties. (references) |
Trade | Nigeria | The confusing situation at the ports has been worsened by the introduction of 100 percent destination inspection. (references) |
Travel | Costa Rica | Signage is poor and sometimes confusing. (references) |
Brazil | Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are very confusing for a newcomer; driving is not recommended. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Rosemary Altea | There is something about a car crash, hospital, someone on life support. I wish I knew what I were doing here now. I'm confusing you completely, so it sounds like I really don't know what I'm doing, but that's what I'm hearing very, very clearly. |
Trisha Meili | I know. I just don't know, and I guess there are lots of different theories out there, but I just don't know, and it's almost too confusing for me to understand. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Bill Clinton | 1993-2001 | But, frankly, the ratings are too numerous, diverse and confusing to be really useful to parents. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Confusing" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 52.33% of the time. "Confusing" is used about 601 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 52.33% | 315 | 16,262 |
| Lexical Verb (-ing form) | 47.51% | 286 | 17,222 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.17% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 601 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "confusing": category-confusing. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
confusing | 12 |
confusing quote | 8 |
confusing words | 5 |
confusing everything lyrics | 5 |
confusing love poem | 4 |
confusing question | 3 |
confusing pair word | 3 |
confusing love quote | 3 |
confusing picture | 3 |
confusing poem | 2 |
confusing riddle | 2 |
away confusing message | 2 |
confusing english | 2 |
confusing saying | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "confusing"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Arabic | مذهل (amazing, astonishing, astounding, baffling, bewildering, dumbfounding, prodigious, spectacular, staggering, startling, stunning, stupendous), مربك (agitating, confounding, disturbing, embarrassing, perplexing, staggering). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | объркващ (perplexing). (various references) | |
Chinese | 混淆 (Addle, Addled, Addling, Bedevil, Bedevilled, Bedevilling, Confuse). (various references) | |
Dutch | verwarrend. (various references) | |
Esperanto | konfuzanta, implikanta. (various references) | |
German | verwirrende (bafflingly, bewilderingly, confusingly), verwirrend (baffling, bemusing, bewildering, cluttering, cockamamie, deranging, disarranging, discombobulating, disheveling, disorienting, distractedly, distracting, disturbing, dizzying, flustering, involved, muddling, perplexing, puzzling, snarly, unsettling). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מביך (baffling, embarrassing, perplexing, vexing), מבלבל (perplexing). (various references) | |
Hungarian | zavarba hozó (perplexing), zavarba ejtő (baffling, bewildering, mind-bending). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 紛らわしい (ambiguous, equivocal, misleading). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | まぎらわしい (ambiguous, equivocal, misleading). (various references) | |
Korean | 혼동. (various references) | |
Manx | mestit (churned, confused, cross-bred, garbled, jumbled, mashed, miscellaneous, mixed, mongrel, stirred), fud y cheilley (at variance, chaotic, confused, confusion, dishevelled, disorder, disordered, embarrassed, flustered, mixed up, muddle, muddled, perplexed, tangled, topsy-turvy). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | onfusingcay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | confundir (addle, astonish, astound, baffle, befog, befuddle, bewilder, confound, confuse, confute, daze, dazzle, disarray, disconcert, distract, dizzy, dumbfound, embarrass, embrangle, embroil, flabbergast, floor, flummox, flurry, fluster, fog, gravel, interfuse, intermingle, jumble, maze, mistake, mix up, moider, muddle, muddy, mull, nonplus, obfuscate, obscure, overwhelm, perplex, put out, puzzle, rattle, ravel, stagger). (various references) | |
Russian | сбивающий с толку (blinding, off-putting, puzzling). (various references) | |
Swedish | förbryllande (baffling, intriguing, puzzling). (various references) | |
Turkish | komplike (complicated, sophisticated), karıştıran (mixing, stirring), kafa karıştırıcı (perplexing, puzzling), şaşırtma (dislocation, diversion, misleading, mystification), şaşırtan, şaşırtıcı (amazing, astonishing, astounding, baffling, bewildering, colossal, confused, dazzling, incredible, intriguing, mind-bending, perplexing, puzzling, rum, spectacular, staggering, startling, striking, surprising, twisty). (various references) | |
Welsh | dryslyd (perplexing). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "confusing": confusingly. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "confusing": unconfusing. (additional references) | |
| |
"Confusing" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: conduisant. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "confusing" (pronounced kunfyuw"zing) |
| 7 | -n f y uw" z i ng | infusing. |
| 6 | -f y uw" z i ng | defusing, diffusing, fusing, refusing. |
| 5 | -y uw" z i ng | abusing, accusing, amusing, excusing, misusing, musing, overusing, recusing, reusing, using. |
| 4 | -uw" z i ng | boozing, bruising, choosing, cruising, losing, oozing, perusing, schmoozing, snoozing. |
| 3 | -z i ng | antagonizing, apologizing, appeasing, appetizing, appraising, arising, advertising, advising, aggrandizing, agonizing, amazing, amortizing, analyzing, arousing, authorizing, blazing, bowsing, browsing, brutalizing, bulldozing, buzzing, cannibalizing, capitalizing, carousing, categorizing, causing, centralizing, characterizing, chastising, cleansing, closing, colorizing, commercializing, composing, comprising, compromising, computerizing, criminalizing, criticizing, crystallizing, customizing, decentralizing, decomposing, decriminalizing, deemphasizing, dehumanizing, demilitarizing, democratizing, demonizing, demoralizing, denationalizing, desensitizing, destabilizing, devising, digitizing, disclosing, disguising, disposing, downsizing, dozing, dramatizing, easing, economizing, editorializing, emphasizing, enclosing, energizing, enterprising, equalizing, espousing, exercising, exposing, fantasizing, federalizing, fertilizing, finalizing, foreclosing, formalizing, franchising, fraternizing, freezing, galvanizing, gazing, generalizing, glamorizing, glazing, grazing, harmonizing, hazing, hosing, housing, humanizing, hydrolyzing, idolizing, immobilizing, immortalizing, immunizing, imposing, improvising, industrializing, institutionalizing, ionizing, ironizing, itemizing, jeopardizing, legalizing, legitimizing, liberalizing, marginalizing, materializing, maximizing, memorizing, merchandising, mesmerizing, minimizing, mobilizing, modernizing, monopolizing, moralizing, nationalizing, neutralizing, normalizing, nosing, opposing, organizing, overgrazing, oxidizing, paralyzing, paraphrasing, patronizing, pausing, penalizing, personalizing, phasing, phrasing, pleasing, polarizing, politicizing, popularizing, posing, praising, predisposing, prioritizing, privatizing, proposing, proselytizing, publicizing, quizzing, raising, rationalizing, razing, realizing, reauthorizing, recapitalizing, recognizing, reimposing, reorganizing, revising, revitalizing, revolutionizing, rising, romanticizing, Rosing, sanitizing, satirizing, scrutinizing, securitizing, seizing, sensationalizing, sizing, sneezing, socializing, specializing, squeezing, stabilizing, standardizing, sterilizing, stigmatizing, strategizing, subsidizing, summarizing, supervising, supposing, surprising, symbolizing, sympathizing, synthesizing, tantalizing, teasing, televising, temporizing, terrorizing, theorizing, tranquilizing, trivializing, unappetizing, uncompromising, unionizing, unsurprising, uprising, utilizing, vandalizing, verbalizing, victimizing, visualizing, warehousing, wheezing, whizzing, womanizing. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-f-g-i-n-n-o-s-u" | |
-1 letter: focusing. | |
-2 letters: congius, consign, nuncios. | |
-3 letters: coigns, coning, conins, cosign, cousin, fugios, fungic, fusing, fusion, gonifs, incogs, nosing, nuncio, unions, unison. | |
-4 letters: cions, coifs, coign, coins, conin, conns, conus, cuifs, cuing, ficus, finos, focus, foins, fugio, fungi, fungo, gonif, icons, incog, incus, infos, nouns, scion, sonic, suing, uncos, union, using. | |
-5 letters: cigs, cion, cogs, coif. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-f-g-i-n-n-o-s-u" | |
+1 letter: flouncings. | |
+2 letters: confusingly, unconfusing. | |
+4 letters: genuflections. | |
+5 letters: configurations, misfunctioning. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Quotations: Spoken 10. Quotations: Speeches 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
