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

Alani, a French journalist, paints a haunting picture of modern Iraq through the eyes of its bewildered children. —Lisa Anderson, Foreign Affairs, 25 Feb. 2025

The snap captures Bailey a bewildered expression on her face. —Mark Joseph, Newsweek, 24 Feb. 2025

Contrast this with what has happened in the last three weeks; the Trump administration has been firing people at such a breakneck clip that a bewildered public can barely keep up. —Jennifer Szalai, New York Times, 12 Feb. 2025

Hubbard’s bewildered eyes locked on Pacific Palisades, a Los Angeles community reshaped by flames. —Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1760, in the meaning defined above