Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Puzzled |
PuzzledAdjective1. Filled with bewilderment; "at a loss to understand those remarks"; "puzzled that she left without saying goodbye". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "puzzled" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1550. (references) |
Synonyms: PuzzledSynonyms: at a loss(p) (adj), nonplused (adj), nonplussed (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Difficulty | Reduced to straits; hard pressed, sorely pressed; run hard; pinched, put to it, straitened; hard up, hard put to it, hard set; put to one's shifts; puzzled, at a loss; (uncertain); at the end of one's tether, at the end of one's rope, at one's wit's end, at a nonplus, at a standstill; graveled, nonplused, nonplussed, stranded, aground; stuck fast, set fast; up a tree, at bay, aux abois, driven into a corner, driven from pillar to post, driven to extremity, driven to one's wit's end, driven to the wall; au bout de son Latin; out of one's depth; thrown out. |
Uncertainty | In a state of uncertainty, in a cloud, in a maze; bushed, off the track; ignorant.; afraid to say; out of one's reckoning, astray, adrift; at sea, at fault, at a loss, at one's wit's end, at a nonplus; puzzled; Verb: lost, abroad, d_sorient_; distracted, distraught. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Puzzled |
| English words defined with "puzzled": At fault ♦ bother ♦ offended ♦ pained, puzzle ♦ Stick. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "puzzled": AMD ♦ Miller's Eye, MOSES ♦ QUANDARY. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Then we're awake, but very puzzled. (Blazing Saddles; writing credit: Andrew Bergman; Mel Brooks) And what I've done is going to be puzzled over, and studied, and followed forever. (Se7en; writing credit: Andrew Kevin Walker) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Puzzled Pals (1933) Felix All Puzzled (1925) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | The doctors puzzled or the desparate case of Mother U.S. Bank. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | She had a distinction, in spite of her obvious weariness, that puzzled and charmed Peter. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Before the Trojan horse is admitted the puzzled citizen will have to be shown a little more fully. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Freud | Throughout the ages, the problem is that women have puzzled people of every kind. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | She would not have been puzzled, had she dared fix on them. |
Alice in Wonderland | Carroll, Lewis | Alice felt dreadfully puzzled. |
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams | |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | This box puzzled Cosette, on account of the odour of embalming which came from it. |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | Puzzled for the moment by saint John at the Latin gate. |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | Joad looked at it, and his face was puzzled. |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | Some have been puzzled to tell how the shore became so regularly paved. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Puzzled" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 64.98% of the time. "Puzzled" is used about 990 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) | 64.98% | 643 | 10,143 |
| Lexical Verb (past participle) | 20.28% | 201 | 21,536 |
| Lexical Verb (past tense) | 13.02% | 129 | 28,132 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.72% | 17 | 85,106 |
| Total | 100.00% | 990 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "puzzled": be puzzled ♦ look puzzled. Additional references. | |
| 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 |
puzzled | 15 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "puzzled"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | në mëdyshje (haltingly, hesitant, hesitantly, hesitatingly, perplexed, vacillating). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | متحير (bewildered, confounded, confused, discomfited, distracted, embarrassed, nonplused, perplexed), مرتبك (agitated, baffled, bemused, bewildered, confounded, confused, discomfited, disconcerted, disquieted, disturbed, embarrassed, lummox, perplexed, perturbed, uneasy, upset), مشدوه (amazed, astonished, astounded, flabbergasted, shocked, startled, stunned, thunderstruck, wonder struck). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | озадачен (bushed, perplexed, quizzical). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 困惑 (puzzling, Quandaries, Quandary). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | být zmatený (be puzzled, be stunned, be stupefied). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | perplexe. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | verwirrt (afoul, baffled, baffles, befuddled, bemused, bemuses, bewildered, bewilders, confused, confuses, dazed, dazedly, dazzlingly, deranges, disarranges, discombobulates, disconcerts, dishevels, disorients, distracts, disturbed, dizzied, embarrasses, flustered, flusters, fuddled, muddles, perplexed, perplexes, perturbed, uncertain, unsettles), verdutzt (baffled, bewildered, blank, blankly, disconcerts, nonplused, perplexed, taken aback), geblufft. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | zavart (abashed, be disconcerted, bewildered, disturbed, embarrassed, flustered, nonplussed, perplexed, self-conscious), tanácstalan (at one's wits end, bushed, to be all at sea, to be at a loss). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | kalap (bewitched, enchanted, perplexed, possessed, upset), bingung (confused, disoriented, distrait, mixed up, panicky, perplexed, perturbed, rattled, wool-gathering). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | perplesso (bewildered, confused, distracted, distraught, helpless, perplexed). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 迷う (to be perplexed, to be puzzled, to lose one's way). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | まどう (evil ways, heresy, to be puzzled), まよう (to be perplexed, to be puzzled, to lose one's way), とほうにくれる (be at a loss, be puzzled). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 당혹게하". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | uzzledpay derutat (confused). (various references) недоуменный (quizzical). (various references) zbunjen (abashed, ablush, aghast, befuddled, bewildered, confounded, confused, distraught, embarrassed, loss: at a loss, nonplussed, quizzical), smeten (addle-brained, confused, muddleheaded, muddle-headed, puzzle-headed, streaked). (various references) perplejo (at a loss, befuddled, bemused, bewildered, bushed, confounded, leak, perplexed). (various references) brydd (abashed, embarrassed, self-conscious, shy). (various references) ซึ่งงุนงง. (various references) karışmış (afoul, confused, entangled, foul, in disorder, involved, inwrought, mingled, mixed), kafası karışmış (addle, addled, bemused, confused, perplexed, puzzle-headed), şaşkın (addle-brained, addled, addle-headed, addle-pated, all abroad, at an end, bemused, bepuzzle, bewildered, confused, consternated, dizzy, dumbfounded, gaping, happy, open-eyed, pixilated, puzzle-headed, sheepish, slaphappy, taken aback, thunderstruck, twisted, wide-eyed, wondering), şaşırmış (all at sea, all out, amazed, at a loss, baffled, bewildered, blank, confounded, confused, disoriented, distracted, lost, perplexed, punch-drunk, surprised, taken aback, twisted, wondering). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Araucaria araucana. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "puzzled": unpuzzled. (additional references) | |
| |
"Puzzled" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: pezzle, pezzoli, Pozzallo, pozzle, pussle, puzzlie, spazzle. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "puzzled" (pronounced pu"zuld) |
| 5 | -u" z u l d | muzzled. |
| 4 | -z u l d | chiseled, dazzled, embezzled, fizzled, frazzled, grizzled, sizzled. |
| 3 | -u l d | addled, ambled, angled, annulled, assembled, babbled, backpedaled, baffled, barreled, battled, bedeviled, bedraggled, befuddled, belittled, bespectacled, bevelled, bicycled, boggled, bottled, bridled, bristled, bubbled, buckled, bundled, bungled, cabled, canceled, cancelled, channeled, chortled, chronicled, chuckled, circled, cobbled, coddled, commingled, corbelled, counseled, coupled, crackled, credentialed, crippled, crumbled, crumpled, cuddled, cycled, dabbled, dangled, dialed, dibbled, dimpled, disabled, disassembled, disgruntled, disheveled, dismantled, doubled, dribbled, dueled, dwindled, embattled, emerald, empaneled, enabled, enameled, encircled, enfeebled, entangled, entitled, equaled, fabled, fiddled, flanneled, fondled, freckled, fueled, fuelled, fumbled, funneled, gambled, garbled, giggled, gobbled, grappled, grumbled, haggled, handled, hassled, heckled, Herald, hobbled, huddled, humbled, hustled, idled, impaneled, imperiled, initialed, intermingled, jangled, jostled, juggled, jumbled, kindled, knuckled, labeled, labelled, ladled, leveled, levelled, libeled, mangled, manhandled, marbled, marshaled, marshalled, marveled, mingled, mishandled, mislabeled, modeled, mottled, muddled, muffled, mumbled, muscled, needled, nestled, nettled, newfangled, nibbled, ogled, paddled, paneled, parceled, pedaled, pedalled, peddled, penciled, peopled, pickled, principled, pummeled, quadrupled, quarreled, quintupled, rambled, rankled, rattled, raveled, reassembled, recycled, redoubled, refueled, rekindled, remodeled, resembled, resettled, reshuffled, reveled, riddled, rifled, rippled, rivaled, ruffled, rumbled, rumpled, saddled, sampled, scaffold, scrambled, scribbled, scuffled, scuttled, settled, shackled, shoveled, shriveled, shuffled, shuttled, signaled, signalled, singled, smuggled, snarled, spangled, sparkled, speckled, spiraled, sprinkled, squabbled, squirreled, stapled, startled, stenciled, stifled, straddled, straggled, strangled, struggled, stumbled, subtitled, swindled, tabled, tackled, tangled, tasseled, tattled, throttled, tickled, tinkled, titled, toggled, toppled, totaled, totalled, trampled, traveled, travelled, trebled, trembled, trickled, tripled, troubled, trundled, tumbled, tussled, unbridled, unlabeled, unprincipled, unraveled, unrivaled, unruffled, unsettled, unshackled, untrammeled, untroubled, waffled, wangled, whistled, whittled, widdled, wobbled, wrangled, wrestled, wrinkled. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "d-e-l-p-u-z-z" | |
-1 letter: puzzle. | |
-2 letters: duple, puled. | |
-3 letters: duel, dupe, leud, lude, pled, pule. | |
-4 letters: del, due, dup, eld, led, leu, lez, ped, pud, pul, zed. | |
-5 letters: de, ed, el, pe, up. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-e-l-p-u-z-z" | |
+2 letters: unpuzzled. | |
+5 letters: puzzleheaded. | |
| 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. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
