variants
also nonplusing
as in embarrassing
to throw into a state of self-conscious distress
I was nonplussed by his openly expressed admiration of me
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
variants
also nonplusing
as in perplexing
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for nonplussing
Verb
-
The mother, being a mother, finds fault and has embarrassing politics.—
Nathaniel Moore
September 10,
Literary Hub,
10 Sep. 2025 -
On top of that already embarrassing history, Ravens longtime head coach John Harbaugh has made some unfortunate NFL history of his own.—
James Brizuela,
MSNBC Newsweek,
8 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
This is especially perplexing when supermassive black holes are seen in a time when the universe was less than 1 billion years old.—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
15 Sep. 2025
-
For nearly five decades, NASA's twin Voyager probes have plumbed the cosmos in search of answers to some of astronomy's most perplexing mysteries about our solar system and its place in the wider universe.—
Eric Lagatta,
USA Today,
8 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
There doesn’t seem to be anything untoward or disconcerting about this interest in physical health and well-being.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
2 Sep. 2025
-
The young actor has a disconcerting awareness of the roiling potential of his changing body.—
Doreen St. Félix,
The New Yorker,
22 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
And yet, despite being an Oscar-hopeful crowd-pleaser rather than a horror movie, The Green Mile features some of the most upsetting imagery and themes in any King adaptation.—
James Grebey,
Time,
12 Sep. 2025
-
This disastrously cramped conception of who gets to have a day in court would be the main target of my outrage if the court’s opinion on the use of ethnicity, language and workplace as factors in immigration enforcement weren’t even more upsetting.—
Noah Feldman,
Mercury News,
10 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
No rattling wheels, no jolts, just a smooth, whisper-quiet ride.—
Kaif Shaikh,
Interesting Engineering,
15 Sep. 2025
-
At Chapman University, senior Zack Dell said the assassination has been rattling.—
Hanna Kang,
Oc Register,
13 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Tuesday will go down as one of Boston’s most confounding losses of the season, a 4-3 defeat in 11 innings to the Baltimore Orioles in which the club went 0 for 13 with runners in scoring position.—
Mac Cerullo,
Boston Herald,
22 Aug. 2025
Verb
-
Since its creation in 2007, only about 2% of applicants had successfully received forgiveness before the pandemic, largely due to confusing eligibility rules and administrative mismanagement.—
Leadership Brainery,
Forbes.com,
10 Sep. 2025
-
Beneficiaries would have to verify their own identities by using an often-confusing web portal or by traveling to a field office to do it in person.—
Eli Hager,
ProPublica,
8 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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But the drum sound wasn’t nearly as dismaying as the studio’s piano, which kept slipping out of tune.—
Peter Ames Carlin,
Rolling Stone,
13 Aug. 2025
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With a six-game deficit in the American League wild card hunt entering play on Monday, the Angels may be only a few series away from repeating their dismaying playbook from 2023.—
Jackson Roberts,
MSNBC Newsweek,
12 Aug. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Nonplussing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nonplussing. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.
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