confusion
//kənˈfjuːʒən//
Forms
- Plural
- confusions
Definitions
1.A lack of clarity or order.
- But much of the federal workforce is located outside the nation’s capital, and Trump’s offer was met with confusion and skepticism in many of those offices.
2.The state of being confused; misunderstanding.
3.The act of mistaking one thing for another or conflating distinct things.
- Confusion of sex and gender continues when she begins to address what the sex-change operation achieves.
- Now (exc. in Nautical language, see b) it is only dialectal or an illiterate substitute for lie, its identity of form with the past tense of the latter no doubt accounting largely for the confusion.
4.Lack of understanding due to dementia.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3619
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From Middle English confusioun, from Old French confusion, from Latin confusio, confusionem.
Morphologically confuse + -ion.