confusion

noun

1. 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. 2

   The state of being confused; misunderstanding.

   Forgive these wild and wandering cries, ⁠Confusions of a wasted youth; ⁠Forgive them where they fail in truth, And in thy wisdom make me wise.

3. 3

   The act of mistaking one thing for another or conflating distinct things.

   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.

   Confusion of sex and gender continues when she begins to address what the sex-change operation achieves.

4. 4

   Lack of understanding due to dementia.

5. 5

   archaicA state of shame or embarrassment.

   Lady Bellaston fixed her eyes on Sophia whilst she spoke these words. To which that poor young lady, having her face overspread with blushes and confusion, answered, in a stammering voice […]

   "[…] In going to Mr Carlyle you have done the best thing possible; you have put your sister into the care of the shrewdest man in London." Whereat the object of this quite unexpected eulogy found himself becoming covered with modest confusion.

6. 6

   rareA group of wildebeest.

   A group of wildebeest is called a confusion.

   The runners are a confusion of wildebeest, fighting their way to the front.

   we came up over a rise and saw a dazzle of zebras and a confusion of wildebeest - by the thousands , not merely hundreds.

   When he reversed out of yet another cul-de-sac , with the eyes of a huge confusion of wildebeest glinting in.

Forms

plural

confusions