HOW TO PRONOUNCE
puzzle
/ˈpʌzəl/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 1:03
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What does puzzle mean?
noun
- The state of feeling confused or mystified because one cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; bewilderment, confusion; (countable) often in in a puzzle: an instance of this.
- A thing such as a complicated matter or a problem which is difficult to make sense of or understand; also, a person who is difficult to make sense of or understand; an enigma.
- Often preceded by a descriptive word: a game or toy, or a problem, requiring some effort to complete or work out, which is intended as a pastime and/or to test one's mental ability.
More meanings (9)
verb
- To cause (oneself or someone, or their mind, etc.) to feel confused or mystified because they cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; to confuse, to mystify, to perplex.
- To use (one's brain or mind) to try to work out a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; also, to try to work out (a complicated matter, a problem, etc.).
- Often followed by about, over, or upon: to feel confused or mystified because one cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.
- Often followed by about, over, or or upon: to think deeply in bewilderment to try to work out a complicated matter, a problem, etc.
- To search in a confused or mystified manner.
- Followed by through: to solve a complicated matter, a problem, etc., by working through confusing or difficult matters.
- (obsolete) To (intentionally) make (something) complicated or confused, and so difficult to resolve or understand; to confuse, to complicate.
- (obsolete) To cause (someone) to not know what to do due to some problem, situation, etc.; to bewilder, to confound, to perplex.
noun
- (obsolete) Short for puzzle-peg (“a piece of wood secured under a dog's jaw to keep the dog's nose away from the ground so that it uses the scent in the air to track its quarry, and to prevent the dog from tearing the quarry once found”).
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ˈpʌzəl/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
A woman’s heart is such a complex problem—the owner thereof is often most incompetent to find the solution of this puzzle.
“It’s just possible, Betteredge, that my stranger and your three jugglers may turn out to be pieces of the same puzzle.”
More book examples (3)
He went away on the word, leaving me with a new mystery to think of, a new puzzle to grapple with.
There remains the entrance into the cell, a puzzle that has kept me on the alert for a quarter of a century.
Where distinctions are so slight as to puzzle an expert, they should be ignored, and the best variety of the class preserved.