bemused
/bɪˈmjuːzd/
bemused is the simple past and past participle of bemuse.
Adjective
bemused (comparative more bemused, superlative most bemused)
- deeply thoughtful; preoccupied
- perplexed and bewildered
- That left Bradly as bemused as ever, for it posed another incomprehensibility: Why had Podson walked here?1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 65
Meaning of bemuse
Verb
bemuse (third-person singular simple present bemuses, present participle bemusing, simple past and past participle bemused)
- To confuse or bewilder.
- [With] fairy tales bemused the shepherd lies.1771, James Foot, Penseroso
- To be amused, especially sardonically.
- To devote to the Muses.
- When those incorrigible things, Poets, are once irrecoverably Be-mus'd1705, Alexander Pope, Letters
- To make drunk; to intoxicate.
- a parson much be-mus'd in beer1735, Alexander Pope, Satires of Dr. Donne versified
Forms of bemused
| comparative | more bemused |
|---|---|
| superlative | most bemused |
Words formed from bemused
Questions about bemused
- What does bemused mean?
- Bemused means deeply thoughtful; preoccupied.
- What is bemused the simple past and past participle of?
- Bemused is the simple past and past participle of bemuse.
- What part of speech is bemused?
- Bemused is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce bemused?
- Bemused is pronounced /bɪˈmjuːzd/.
Words near bemused in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bemused (page history and authors); bemuse (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bemused.wav.
Cite this entry: “bemused.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bemused. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.