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puzzle

[puhz-uhl]

Example Sentences Origin

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noun

a toy, problem, or other contrivance designed to amuse by presenting difficulties to be solved by ingenuity or patient effort.

something puzzling; a puzzling question, matter, or person.

a puzzled or perplexed condition; bewilderment.

a crossword puzzle: Did you do the puzzle in the newspaper today?

a jigsaw puzzle.

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verb (used with object)

to put (someone) at a loss; mystify; confuse; baffle: Her attitude puzzles me.

to frustrate or confound, as the understanding; perplex: The problem puzzled him for weeks.

to exercise (oneself, one's brain, etc.) over some problem or matter.

Archaic. to make intricate or complicated.

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Puzzle is one of our favorite verbs.

So is kibitz. Does it mean:

to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.

chat, to converse

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verb (used without object)

10.

to be perplexed or confused.

11.

to ponder or study over some perplexing problem or matter.

Verb phrase

12.

puzzle out, to solve by careful study or effort: I was unable to puzzle out the message.

Origin:
1585–95; origin uncertain

Related forms

puz·zled·ly, adverb

puz·zled·ness, noun

un·puz·zle, verb (used with object), -zled, -zling.

Synonyms
2. Puzzle, riddle, enigma refer to something baffling or confusing that is to be solved. A puzzle is a question or problem, intricate enough to be perplexing to the mind; it is sometimes a contrivance made purposely perplexing to test one's ingenuity: a crossword puzzle; The reason for their behavior remains a puzzle. A riddle is an intentionally obscure statement or question, the meaning of or answer to which is to be arrived at only by guessing: the famous riddle of the Sphinx. Enigma, originally meaning riddle, now refers to some baffling problem with connotations of mysteriousness: He will always be an enigma to me. 6. confound.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To puzzle

Example Sentences

Create new planets with interlocking puzzle pieces, then watch the worlds come to life.

Researchers get help from a venerable number theory and a popular puzzle game to solve genetic medical mysteries.

Your weekly diversion is a little puzzle about four knights and four dragons.

EXPAND

Create new planets with interlocking puzzle pieces, then watch the worlds come to life.

Researchers get help from a venerable number theory and a popular puzzle game to solve genetic medical mysteries.

Your weekly diversion is a little puzzle about four knights and four dragons.

Developing cleaner power sources for transportation is perhaps the trickiest piece of the energy puzzle.

Well there was a pretty good turn out for this weeks puzzle.

Numberlink is an incredibly simple puzzle concept: draw lines in a grid that connect each pair of numbers.

Here are where the emphasis is not on solving the puzzle but.

One central piece of the puzzle concerns the tenure system, hatched in another era by a.

These are the tennis-ball equivalents and their existence is a puzzle.

The presence of the rooster's wattle has long been a puzzle because it seems to serve no purpose.

It's often a puzzle to me how one plant can be well-behaved and valued in one area but a thug in another region.

Each day's puzzle will task your googling skills a.

Anyhow, if you want to puzzle out the unintelligent-design aspect of each sculpture, you'll have to visit them on your own.

The prince could be a puzzle even to those who claimed to know him well.

Tinted puzzle clues have a little fun with the fl imfl amming fl owers.

Scientists have long wondered about the ability because it appears to be an important piece in the puzzle of human consciousness.

There was a bumpy start this week, but as usual though the puzzle geeks weathered the storm of typos.

Retention is a puzzle that's been studied, studied, and studied some more.

Why the fizzy brown sugar-water has had this success is a puzzle that has exercised many minds.

The long, hollow filaments on theropods posed a puzzle.

To learn a language is to piece together a puzzle that is never quite done.

Part of the puzzle is that people count minorities differently.

The seven tiny feathers could fill a key gap in the puzzle of how dinosaurs gave rise to flying birds, a new study says.

Unscramble the letters, find the missing one, and solve the puzzle.

Each day's puzzle will task your googling skills a little.

Help potential employers understand you by not making them work to puzzle out your background and skills.

Consider, first, the puzzle that the city seems to be a caring socialist republic of cut-throat capitalists.

The fossil adds another piece to the puzzle of how dinosaurs might be linked with birds.

As neuroscientists, both of us have made it our life's goal to try to solve this puzzle.

The upside is that you are putting together pieces of a puzzle and trying to figure out where the true story lies.

The puzzle is why the government has provoked this fight now.

Rearrange the pieces to solve the puzzle in this addictive game.

When those humans first developed the potential for symbolic thought, including language, has remained a puzzle.

They are not protesting, as much as they are trying to puzzle this catastrophe through.

The carry trade is a bit of a puzzle since it seems too simple to work.

Now scientists hope to test an idea that might solve the centuries-old puzzle behind the phenomenon.

As you read this article you sense the struggle to understand the parts of the puzzle of this disease.

The handful of attendees who solved the puzzle were rewarded with candy-filled puzzle boxes in the mail.

Portray, or even conceive, of your work as an answer to a puzzle.

Why punters seem to be so good at guessing is a puzzle.

Day has joined the other researchers at this week's meeting to puzzle over the rocks.

Why some organisms shrink and others turn into giants is a puzzle.

Predock's is a puzzle of interlocking spaces and shapes.

The final piece of the puzzle is to estimate what effect such a drop in lending would have on the overall economy.

Just how the oral approach works is still somewhat of a puzzle for researchers, especially when compared with shots.

The final piece of the puzzle may be the development of a country club atmosphere in higher education.

Fewer people will puzzle over his meanings in this book and come away partially frustrated.

For me the puzzle is having students who would be better off shutting up a bit more and those who need to talk.

She then gave her volunteers a puzzle and kept the camera rolling as their faces demonstrated concentration.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

puzzle (ˈpʌz^əl)

—vb (foll by over) (usually foll by out)
1.	to perplex or be perplexed
2.	to attempt the solution (of); ponder (about): he puzzled over her absence
3.	to solve by mental effort: he puzzled out the meaning of the inscription

—n
4.	a person or thing that puzzles
5.	a problem that cannot be easily or readily solved
6.	the state or condition of being puzzled
7.	jigsaw puzzle See Chinese puzzle a toy, game, or question presenting a problem that requires skill or ingenuity for its solution

[C16: of unknown origin]

'puzzling

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

puzzle

1590s, pusle "bewilder, confound," possibly frequentative of pose (v.) in obsolete sense of "perplex" (cf. nuzzle from nose). The noun meaning "state of being puzzled" is recorded from c.1600, from the verb; meaning "perplexing question" is from 1650s; that of "a toy contrived to test one's ingenuity"

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is from 1814.

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