Bewildered

How to spell bewildered

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce bewildered

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bewildered mean?

1. adjectiveDeeply confused or puzzled, unable to understand what is happening.
2. verbPast tense of 'bewilder': caused someone to become confused or disoriented.

Bewildered in a sentence

• adjective

  The new staff looked bewildered by the tangle of unfamiliar software.

• verb

  The maze of one-way streets bewildered every visitor who tried to drive through.

• adjective

  She stood bewildered at the airport, unsure which terminal to enter.

• verb

  His long, rambling explanation only bewildered the committee further.

Where does bewildered come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the verb 'bewilder', which appeared in English in the late 1600s. It was built from the old intensive prefix 'be-', meaning 'thoroughly' or 'completely', joined to 'wilder', a now-rare verb meaning 'to lead astray' or 'to lure someone into trackless wild country'. That 'wilder' element is a close relative of 'wild' and 'wilderness', so the literal early picture was of a person hopelessly lost in a tangled, pathless forest. Over time the sense moved indoors and inward, shifting from being physically lost in the wilds to being mentally lost: confused, baffled, and unable to make sense of things. Recognising the hidden 'wild' inside the word is a useful spelling cue, since it explains the single 'l' and the 'er' before the final '-ed'.

How the word is built

• be- (intensive prefix: thoroughly)
• wilder (to lead astray, lose in the wilds)
• -ed (past/adjective suffix)