bewilder

The absurdist’s power rests in their ability to befuddle and bewilder, trusting the joke will land with the right folks and insult their target’s intelligence.

From Salon ● May 21, 2026

Essential to a wilderness is its capacity to bewilder, and though certain of Church’s colleagues in the Hudson River group, notably Worthington Whittredge, brilliantly captured this dense, enfolding quality, Church seldom did.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026

If the soul of Leif Erikson were to materialize inside his statue for a day, much of what he saw would bewilder him.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 13, 2023

The real world may initially bewilder Barbie, but she figures it out.

From New York Times ● Jul. 18, 2023

This was one more thing to bewilder everyone, especially the horseman.

From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios

Before grandmother can visit, she is expected to be able to speak to her granddaughter in English — a request that bewilders and aggrieves her, but one that she cannot refuse.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2024

The variety of goals that the Japanese striker scores is astonishing, but all of them have one thing in common - speed of thought that bewilders the unfortunates tasked with the job of marking him.

From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2023

Basra continually bewilders experts, envoys and residents: How can a relatively stable province so rich in resources rank among the poorest and most under-developed in the country?

From Washington Times ● Mar. 24, 2023

Basra continually bewilders experts, envoys and residents: How can a relatively stable province so rich in resources rank among the poorest and most underdeveloped in the country?

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 23, 2023

No, such study of history bewilders and overwhelms.

From Thoughts Out of Season (Part II) by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Other times, I was interviewing believers and, more often, their bewildered loved ones.

From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026

Birds and other animals, bewildered by unforeseen night, start behaving strangely.

From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026

At first, I was pleasantly surprised, if a little bewildered because of who they came from.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026

LONDON—Britain’s new prime minister arrived in Downing Street last week promising stability for a weary nation bewildered after churning through six leaders in seven years.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

Then I watched as planes sank into them, and I stared, bewildered, at the TV as the unimaginably tall structures swayed, then buckled.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

Ms. Turetsky applies a bewildering array of nouns to describe peat—it is a vault, a tomb, a record, a pendulum, an archive.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

The source of his bewildering restraint becomes a mystery concealed on every page.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

Remembering that lesson will surely help bereaved families through a process that many find bewildering at best; incomprehensible at worst.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

One of the more bewildering primary results of the year came this week in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District, a swing seat currently represented by Democratic freshman Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet.

From Slate ● Aug. 8, 2026

It feels to Marie-Laure as if they have wound these past four days toward the center of a bewildering maze, and now they are tiptoeing past the pickets of some final interior cell.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr