confounded

Syllables: con·found·ed/kənˈfaʊndɪd/

confounded is the simple past and past participle of confound.

Adjective

confounded (comparative more confounded, superlative most confounded)

Confused, astonished.
- The media is very confounded right now. They're very confused. They don't know whether to trash themselves, trash their colleagues, or what.2017 March 6, “Mark Levin on why Obama may have been spying on Trump; Reps. Gohmert, Meadows detail new health care proposal”, in Fox News, retrieved 06 Mar 2017
- Reagan has famously stumped his chroniclers. His official biographer, Edmund Morris, was so confounded by the assignment that he resorted to fiction, producing a muddled portrait of “Dutch” (Reagan’s longtime nickname) that was blasted by reviewers.2024 September 9, Jennifer Burns, “Book Review: 'Reagan' by Max Boot”, in New York Times, archived from the original on 23 Sep 2024
Defeated, thwarted.
- Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night
  To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
  Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe
  Confounded though immortal: […]1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 50–3
Synonyms:

beaten, overcome, vanquished, foiled, bested, broken, conquered, defeated, licked, overpowered
(colloquial) Extremely bad; very unpleasant; used as an intensifier.
- The confounded thing doesn't work.
- "This is all stuff and nonsense," said the king; "I shall have to go myself, if we are to get this confounded whistle from him."1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 177

confound (third-person singular simple present confounds, present participle confounding, simple past and past participle confounded)

To perplex or puzzle.
- And the brother of Jared being a large and mighty man, and a man highly favored of the Lord, Jared, his brother, said unto him: Cry unto the Lord, that he will not confound us that we may not understand our words.1830, Joseph Smith, Jr., Book of Mormon: Ether, i, 34
Synonyms:

puzzle, vex
To stun or amaze.
To fail to see the difference; to mix up; to confuse right and wrong.
- They vvho leſſe ſeriouſly conſider the force of vvords, doe ſometimes confound Lavv vvith Counſell, ſometimes vvith Covenant, ſometimes vvith Right. They confound Lavv vvith Counſel, vvho think, that it is the duty of Monarchs not onely to give ear to their Counſellours, but alſo to obey them, as...1651, Tho[mas] Hobbes, “[Dominion.] Chapter XIV. Of Lawes and Trespasses.”, in Philosophicall Rudiments Concerning Government and Society. […], London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond] for R[ichard] Royston...
Synonyms:

confuse, mix up, addle, baffle, vex, lose, embroil, stick, stump, baffound
(proscribed, sometimes) To make something worse.
- Don't confound the situation by yelling.
To combine in a confused fashion; to mingle so as to make the parts indistinguishable.
- There the freſh and ſalt water would meete and be confounded together, […]1611, Coryat, Crudities, volume I, page 195
To cause to be ashamed; to abash.
- His actions confounded the skeptics.

10 more synonymsFewer synonyms

comparative	more confounded
superlative	most confounded

What does confounded mean?: Confounded means confused, astonished.
What is confounded the simple past and past participle of?: Confounded is the simple past and past participle of confound.
What part of speech is confounded?: Confounded is an adjective.
How do you pronounce confounded?: Confounded is pronounced /kənˈfaʊndɪd/.

Adapted from Wiktionary: confounded (page history and authors); confound (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-confounded.wav.

Cite this entry: “confounded.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/confounded. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.