bewildered

adjective

be·​wil·​dered bi-ˈwil-dərd 

bē-

: deeply or utterly confused or perplexed

I was appalled and was too bewildered to do or say anything.

—Bram Stoker

He looked at her with a bewildered expression.

Speaking for myself, I stumbled into motherhood and was bewildered at the shift of gears, the volte-face required to reorient myself, my values and my way of life into being a carer of small children.

—Madeleine Bunting

Synonyms

• addle
• addled
• addlepated
• bedeviled
• befogged
• befuddled
• bemused
• bushed [chiefly Australian]
• confounded
• confused
• dazed
• distracted
• dizzy
• dopey
• dopy
• fogged
• mixed-up
• muddleheaded
• muzzy
• pixilated
• pixillated
• punch-drunk
• punchy
• raddled
• shell-shocked
• silly
• slaphappy
• spaced-out
• spaced
• spacey
• spacy
• stunned
• stupefied
• zonked
• zonked-out

Examples of bewildered in a Sentence

the bewildered child wandered aimlessly around the playground

Recent Examples on the Web

The clip received more than 3,900 shares and 4.1 million views on X. In the footage a young girl dressed in pink walks along the chilled aisle of a superstore, throwing products as bewildered customers look on. —Josh Hammer, Newsweek, 3 Dec. 2024

In May, police officers in the town of Lufkin, Texas responded to a bewildered call about a pair of kangaroos that were on the loose. —Christine Rousselle, Fox News, 19 Oct. 2024

Countless volunteers are the proud owners of pink foam fingers, acting as traffic conductors for bewildered spectators. —Chang W. Lee, New York Times, 7 Aug. 2024

But as with every other City player (Rodri excepted) here, City players are looking bewildered outside Pep’s system. —Liam Tharme, The Athletic, 30 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1760, in the meaning defined above