kənˈfyüzhən noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French, from Latin confusion-, confusio, from confusus + -ion-, -io -ion
1. : overthrow , defeat , ruin , destruction
the defeat and confusion of Carthage in the war with Rome
confusion to such a tyrant king
2.
a. : a state of being discomfited, disconcerted, chagrined, or embarrassed especially at some blunder or check
his sister [was] overcome with confusion and unable to lift up her eyes — Jane Austen
b. : state of being confused mentally : lack of certainty, orderly thought, or power to distinguish, choose, or act decisively : perplexity
slowly emerging from the mental confusion which followed the fall — Havelock Ellis
present intellectual confusion and moral chaos of the world — John Dewey
3.
a. : an act of confusing, of mixing, pouring, blending, or heaping together in disorder with identities and distinctions blended
the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel
a confusion of history and poetry in his work
b. : an act of mistaking one thing for another, of failing to note distinctions, and of falsely identifying
a formal confusion of poetry and painting — Irving Babbitt
confusion between public and private morality — D.W.Brogan
4. : a situation or condition marked by lack of order, system, arrangement : an unclear welter or muddle : an utter disorder
a luxuriant crop of very long hair which … got itself into great confusion — W.H.Hudson
the confusion of hills typical of glacial regions — American Guide Series: Minnesota
the dark confusion of German history — A.L.Guérard
the long uncertainty and bloody confusion that attended the breakdown of the Roman Empire — Lewis Mumford
5. law
a. : a merging of two rights in one or of two apparently or really antagonistic interests in one
b. : commixture 3
c. Roman & civil law : extinction of an obligation by a person acquiring the right from which the obligation arose
Synonyms:
: disarray , disorder , clutter , jumble , pi , snarl , muddle , chaos : confusion is a rather general term suggesting any mixing, blending, adding together that blurs identities and distinctions or any result of such mixing. disarray suggests a disarranging — a breaking away from order, sequence, form, or discipline
the disarray in which the Germans found themselves … following on the capitulation of their Italian ally — Times Literary Supplement
disorder indicates a want of order through wonted neglect of it or through some break or interruption in orderly processes or arrangements
our last chance to substitute order for disorder, government for anarchy — E.B.White
standing between the older America and the new, with the foundations disintegrating under his feet, he confused the disorder in his own mind with the disorder in the external world — V.L.Parrington
clutter implies a confused litter of the miscellaneous and adventitious, impeding free activity or clear perception
what a mess this set is in! if there's one thing I hate … it's clutter — Edna St. V. Millay
this essay clears one irrelevant topic from the clutter of symbolist criticism — Times Literary Supplement
jumble suggests a heaping together of many incongruous things so that free use, enjoyment, or perception of any individual item is made difficult
the ruptured ambulance convoy … a jumble of overturned wagons, spilled pungent powders — Irwin Shaw
a vast jumble of incoherent erudition on which he drew for purely poetic effects — T.S.Eliot
pi , in this sense from printing, sometimes designates a confusion or disarrangement of small items hard to classify or order like miscellaneous type. snarl is likely to suggest a knotted entanglement hard to unravel, resolve, or sort out
parachute cords in a snarl
a snarl of traffic at the bridge entrance
muddle suggests a litter or welter so extreme that making order is impossible and hence a situation marked by bungling, uncertainty, and feeble, dubious, ill-directed expediency
as … they all had to live in one small room and the kitchen, the place usually looked a muddle — Nigel Balchin
the effort to make a distinction … produced such a muddle that it was dropped — G.B.Shaw
chaos suggests uttermost confusion, with no order, arrangement, regularity, sequence, or predictability; it may suggest primordial formlessness or complete disintegration
disorder to the point of chaos — B.N.Cardozo
back not merely to the dark ages but from cosmos to chaos — B.M.Baruch
such social chaos … as to make civilization impossible — Blanton Fortson
Synonym: see in addition commotion .