1
as in cursed
deserving of one's condemnation or displeasure
that confounded dog chewed up my shoe
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in perplexed
faced with difficulty or uncertainty about what to say, think, or do
the sudden burden of familial responsibility has left him anxious and confounded
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3
as in bewildered
suffering from mental confusion
since their house is old and impressive-looking, they are frequently imposed upon by confounded tourists
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1
as in baffled
to throw into a state of mental uncertainty
we were confounded by the player's remote control, which wasn't at all user-friendly
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2
as in embarrassed
to throw into a state of self-conscious distress
his renewed popularity has confounded the critics who said his singing career was dead
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3
as in confused
to fail to differentiate (a thing) from something similar or related
I think you've confounded astrology with astronomy
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4
as in refuted
to prove to be false
new discoveries that confound much of what archaeologists thought they knew about the Mayan civilization
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of confounded
Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald, 16 Aug. 2025
The displeasure of it gave way to absurdity, out of which emerged a mutual, confounded glee.
—Kent Russell, Harper's Magazine, 15 Sep. 2020
In Europe itself, Greece has so far confounded predictions by avoiding the kind of mass outbreaks that have claimed tens of thousands of lives in Italy, France, and Britain.
—Ned Temko, The Christian Science Monitor, 6 May 2020
And with wild swings on Tuesday, the markets proved those predictions correct, a marker of how confounded investors appear as the covid-19 economic crisis takes a fuller form.
—Jacob Bogage, BostonGlobe.com, 31 Mar. 2020
The Germans are no less confounded than the Democrats.
—Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 14 June 2019
Learn how to work the confounded thing at free Android smartphone workshops being held in South Florida, sponsored by the American Association of Retired Persons.
—Doreen Christensen, Sun-Sentinel.com, 9 Mar. 2018
For decades, recovery stories like this confounded researchers, who characterized autism as a lifelong condition.
—Brendan Borrell, Slate Magazine, 22 Sep. 2017
Luca Evans, Denver Post, 7 Jan. 2026
His remarks have confounded Danish and Greenlandic officials.
—Kim Hjelmgaard, USA Today, 5 Jan. 2026
Even if the jokes sometimes confounded people.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 1 Dec. 2025
Netflix , meanwhile, remains a long-standing holding because the company has repeatedly confounded predictions of its demise.
—Lee Ying Shan, CNBC, 18 Nov. 2025
Without Irving available, Dallas head coach Jason Kidd has struggled to fully trust new point guard D'Angelo Russell (a summer signing by Harrison), whose trick-or-treat offense and lackluster defense have confounded several of his prior NBA stops.
—Alex Kirschenbaum, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Nov. 2025
Surely there exist teenagers, as confounded by their classmates’ fascination with the number 67 as their parents, who simply Googled it.
—Jeff Ihaza, Rolling Stone, 11 Nov. 2025
Travelers confounded by flight cancellations that may soon cascade across the system.
—ABC News, 9 Nov. 2025
But teasing apart why that happens is difficult, because human studies are confounded by so many factors – diet, smoking stress, lifestyle.
—New Atlas, 2 Oct. 2025
Adjective
The Vikings defense hounded Maye, a veteran unit that ranked second in takeaways last year and confounded veteran quarterbacks with its exotic pressure packages.
—Verb
And no defense has confounded a stout Denver front this season like Los Angeles.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for confounded
Adjective
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Notably, season 2 concludes with the Shibuya Incident, an event that left Tokyo in ruins and resulted in cursed spirits killing civilians across the city, according to Crunchyroll.—
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On Tuesday night in Buffalo, in a battle of cursed expansion cousins, the team representing the NHL’s most overdue rebuilding effort solidly bested the league’s most virulently anti-rebuild organization, the Vancouver Canucks, by a 5-3 scoreline that flattered the road side.—
Adjective
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Those late audits have caused ongoing comments by engaged residents who are perplexed that year after year the town’s government is not able to provide the same audit the state’s other 168 municipalities complete and submit to the public and the state’s budget office.—
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Pittman seemed perplexed as to what caused the seemingly uninspired performance.—
Adjective
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Snook and Lacy, who display such sharp instincts in their best work, seem to have been directed to overact; cameras freeze on their exaggeratedly bewildered or angry or devastated expressions, putting exclamation points at the end of too many scenes.—
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Instead, a bewildered stranger answers the door.—
Verb
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At a vigil for the two on Sunday night, friends and family were baffled by the killing, the Allentown Morning Call reported.—
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Scientists are also baffled by how the planet could have formed at all.—
Verb
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French authorities have arrested several suspects after a frantic manhunt for the men who staged a spectacular daytime heist at the Louvre museum that gripped the world and embarrassed the government in Paris.—
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The Revolution provided a brief scare through a 59th-minute goal from Dor Turgeman, who embarrassed a defender before curling home a spectacular effort, but Inter Miami broke the tie almost immediately after the strike that made the score 2-1.—
Verb
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The Farmers’ Almanac will be gone for good after its final 2026 edition, not to be confused with The Old Farmer's Almanac, a separate publication.—
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Blue Origin also launches New Shepard from Texas The New Glenn spacecraft is not to be confused with Blue Origin's much smaller New Shepard rocket that the company launches from West Texas on brief trips taking paying passengers high above Earth's atmosphere.—
Verb
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Trump administration claims that Good attacked or tried to run over ICE agents before the shooting have been refuted by the videos captured during the incident.—
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The New York Civil Liberties Union refuted Noem’s statements about sanctuary city laws.—
Adjective
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Again, the idea of the freaking Crimson Tide celebrating a win over Vandy is just as bizarre as Vandy being in a big game to begin with.—
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Some accredited investors have 'no freaking clue' Even investors who already qualify as accredited could welcome, and benefit from, such a test, experts say.—
Cite this Entry
“Confounded.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/confounded. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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