Definition of: perplexity

(pər·plek′sə·tē) noun plural ·ties
1. Mental difficulty owing to doubt, confusion, etc.
2. That which perplexes; also, an instance of bewilderment.
3. The quality of being intricate or complicated; entanglement. Synonyms: amazement, astonishment, bewilderment, confusion, distraction, disturbance, doubt, embarrassment. Perplexity is the drawing of the thoughts or faculties by turns in different directions or toward contrasted or contradictory conclusions; confusion is a state in which the mental faculties are thrown into chaos, so that the clear and distinct action of perception, memory, reason, and will, is lost; bewilderment is akin to confusion, but is less overwhelming, and more readily recovered from. Perplexity has not the unsettling of the faculties implied in confusion, nor the overwhelming of the faculties implied in amazement or astonishment. With an excitable person, bewilderment may deepen into confusion that will make him unable to think clearly or even to see or hear distinctly. Amazement results from the sudden and un-imagined occurrence of great good or evil or the sudden awakening of the mind to unthought–of truth. Astonishment often produces bewilderment, which the word was formerly understood to imply. See AMAZEMENT, ANXIETY, CARE, DOUBT.