confound

Pronunciation: /kənˈfaʊnd/

The English word “confound” has 10 meanings listed here.

verb

To perplex or puzzle.
To stun or amaze.
To fail to see the difference; to mix up; to confuse right and wrong.
To make something worse.
To combine in a confused fashion; to mingle so as to make the parts indistinguishable.
To cause to be ashamed; to abash.
To defeat, to frustrate, to thwart.
To damn (a mild oath).
To destroy, ruin, or devastate; to bring to ruination.

noun

A confounding variable.

Etymology

From Middle English confounden (“destroy, ruin, perplex”), from Anglo-Norman cunfundre and Old French confondre, from Latin cōnfundō (“to mingle, mix together”). Related to found (“to melt (metals in a foundry)”) (but not to found (“to start”), nor to find) and to fusion.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.