perplexity

The state or quality of being perplexed.

Noun

  1. The state or quality of being perplexed.

    Synonyms: puzzlement bewilderment confusion

  2. Something that perplexes.
    • The Emperor, who was by then a focus of unresolvable perplexities, stood providing a strongly contrary appearance. - 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate, published 2006, page 149:
  3. A measure of how well a probability distribution or model predicts a sample.

Origin

From Middle English perplexite, borrowed from Middle French perplexité or post-classical Latin perplexitās, from perplexus (“entangled”). By surface analysis, perplex + -ity.

Forms

perplexities