To baffle means to completely confuse or puzzle someone. When something baffles you, it leaves you scratching your head, unable to figure it out despite your best efforts. A magic trick might baffle an audience because they can't understand how the magician made the rabbit disappear. A mysterious noise in the attic could baffle your parents until they discover it's just a loose shutter rattling in the wind.

Scientists talk about being baffled by unexplained results in their experiments. Teachers might be baffled when a normally excellent student suddenly struggles with easy material. The word suggests more than just mild confusion: when you're truly baffled, you're stumped, bewildered, at a complete loss for answers.

Something that is baffling creates this sense of puzzlement. A missing airplane that vanishes without clear explanation would be baffling to aviation experts. A baffling problem resists your usual problem-solving strategies and makes you wonder if you're missing something obvious. When detectives investigate a mystery with no clear clues or motives, they describe the case as baffling until they finally discover the missing piece that makes everything clear.