Perplexity

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Perplexity \Per*plex"i*ty\, n.; pl. {Perplexities}. [L.
     perplexitas: cf. F. perplexit['e].]
     The quality or state of being perplexed or puzzled;
     complication; intricacy; entanglement; distraction of mind
     through doubt or difficulty; embarrassment; bewilderment;
     doubt.


     [1913 Webster]
  
           By their own perplexities involved,
           They ravel more.                         --Milton.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  perplexity
       n : trouble or confusion resulting from complexity

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  138 Moby Thesaurus words for "perplexity":
     Chinese puzzle, Gordian knot, amorphousness, baffle, bafflement,
     baffling problem, befuddlement, bewilderment, bind, bother,
     botheration, brain twister, catch-22, chaos, cloud, complexity,
     complexness, complication, confoundment, confusion, convolution,
     crabbedness, crossword puzzle, crux, dark, darkness, daze,
     difficulty, dilemma, discombobulation, discomfiture, discomposure,
     disconcert, disconcertedness, disconcertion, disconcertment,
     disorder, disorganization, disorientation, distress, disturbance,
     doubt, embarrassment, enigma, enigmatic question, entanglement,
     fix, floorer, flummox, flurry, fluster, flutter, fog, fogginess,
     frenzy, fuddle, fuddlement, fuzziness, haze, impenetrability,
     indeterminateness, indistinctness, intricacy, intricateness,
     involution, involvement, jam, jigsaw puzzle, jumble, knot,
     knotty point, maze, mess, mind-boggler, mist, mistiness, muddle,
     muddlement, mumbo jumbo, murk, murkiness, mystery, mystification,
     node, nodus, nonplus, nut to crack, obfuscation, obscurantism,
     obscuration, obscurity, opacity, oxymoron, paradox,
     perplexed question, perturbation, pickle, plight, pons asinorum,
     poser, pother, predicament, problem, pucker, puzzle, puzzlement,
     puzzler, quandary, question, question mark, ramification,
     reconditeness, riddle, ruffle, scrape, shapelessness, shuffle,
     sixty-four dollar question, stew, sticker, stumper, subtlety,
     sweat, swivet, tanglement, teaser, technicality, tizzy,
     tough proposition, unassuredness, unclarity, unclearness,
     unplainness, unsettlement, upset, vagueness, vexed question, why
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  perplexity
       
          The {geometric mean} of the number of words which may follow
          any given word for a certain {lexicon} and {grammar}.