How to Use confound in a Sentence

confound

verb
  • The success of the show confounded critics.
  • The school's team confounded all predictions and won the game.
  • The strategy confounded our opponents.
  • The murder case has confounded investigators.
  • Things like the sun, as well as the dark, seem to confound it.
    — Kevin T. Dugan, Fortune, 21 Sep. 2021
  • Nez knew the code was meant to help confound the enemy.
    — Betty Reid, azcentral, 29 Aug. 2019
  • That’s the Beach Boys for you: confounding until the end.
    — Will Ainsley, SPIN, 24 May 2024
  • The league’s worst run defense gets worse: The Ravens’ run game was sure to confound the Cowboys.
    — Jori Epstein, USA TODAY, 9 Dec. 2020
  • The podcast delves into the confounding details of the killing.
    — Liam Quinn, Peoplemag, 24 Aug. 2023
  • What’s confounding, though, is the Bears have been unable to run the ball through two games.
    — Brad Biggs, Chicago Tribune, 18 Sep. 2024
  • The Pistons have done some confounding things over the years.
    — Detroit Free Press, 7 June 2018
  • The Trojans are 4-0 on the season but have confounded for much of that span.
    — Zach Helfand, latimes.com, 23 Sep. 2017
  • Leave it to the machines, though, to help make sense of a confounding ocean kingdom.
    — Matt Simon, WIRED, 22 Mar. 2018
  • The second quarter was more of the same, as the Parkville zones and traps continued to confound Lansdowne.
    — Mike Frainie, Baltimore Sun, 6 Jan. 2024
  • But my plan to get to Knoxville is confounded by my plodding pace.
    — Ezra Dyer, Popular Mechanics, 7 Aug. 2017
  • Last year, Atlanta confounded the rest of the league by drafting Michael Penix Jr.
    — Pat Leonard, New York Daily News, 30 Apr. 2025
  • One of Trump’s great skills has been to confound his opponents.
    — Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 14 June 2019
  • The left-wing is confounded why all Democrats don’t follow their lead.
    — Chad Pergram, Fox News, 19 July 2018
  • The end was bizarre and confounding and controversial in ways that will sting and stick a while.
    — Vahe Gregorian, kansascity, 20 Oct. 2017
  • There are two things going on that could be kind of confounding.
    — Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic, 3 Sep. 2017
  • Ohio State managed to confound Illinois big man Cockburn for most of the game.
    — cleveland, 16 Jan. 2021
  • But that’s why these races confound and excite us year after year.
    — Childs Walker, baltimoresun.com, 5 Sep. 2020
  • White charged into the box to receive a pass, paused for half a second to confound Naeher and then tapped the ball into the left side of the net.
    — Alicia Delgallo, Pro Soccer USA, 4 July 2019
  • Yet, his seeming reluctance to run the ball at times can confound.
    — Edgar Thompson, Orlando Sentinel, 23 Nov. 2022
  • This has helped them confound doubters and grow briskly despite their massive size.
    — The Economist, 26 Apr. 2018
  • And this might confound your expectations, but the diesel is smoother than the gas engine.
    — Ezra Dyer, Popular Mechanics, 8 Sep. 2019
  • How that driver managed to miss Lewis confounds him, James said.
    — Tonya Alanez, sun-sentinel.com, 11 Nov. 2019
  • The concept of a Cabbage Patch Kid also confounded the artist.
    — Ashley Boucher, PEOPLE.com, 2 Dec. 2019
  • And yet the optics might still be a little confounding to a D.C. outsider, who could wonder if the celebrations need to be as loud or as large.
    — Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 27 Apr. 2025
  • His discography includes some of the greatest and most confounding hip-hop music ever made, full of swift mood changes and uneasy juxtapositions.
    — Kelefa Sanneh, New Yorker, 15 May 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'confound.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: