Perplexes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To create a state of confusion or uncertainty in someone by introducing complex or challenging ideas
2. To cause someone to feel bewildered or unclear in their understanding by presenting difficult information or situations
3. To induce a feeling of confusion or difficulty in comprehension by means of complex or intricate concepts

Etymology: "Perplexes" is the third-person singular form of "perplex," so the history belongs to the verb itself. The word goes back to Latin "perplexus," meaning "entangled" or "confused," built from "per," meaning "through," and "plexus," from "plectere," meaning "to plait, weave, or braid." The image is literal: something so tangled that you cannot find a way through it. That physical sense of tangling is what the word started with. It came into English by way of Old French, which had its own form, "perplexer," and the meaning shifted from a knotted mass of threads toward a knotted state of mind. Someone who is perplexed is caught in a mental tangle, unable to work out which strand to follow.

Synonyms: confuses, baffles, puzzles, bewilders, mystifies

Antonyms: clarifies, explains, simplifies, illuminates