Mystify means to confuse or puzzle someone completely, often in a way that seems almost magical or impossible to understand. When something mystifies you, it leaves you scratching your head, unable to figure out what's happening or why.

A math problem might mystify a student when they can't see how to solve it, no matter how many times they read it. A magician's trick mystifies the audience because they can't figure out how the rabbit appeared in the empty hat. Scientists are mystified when they discover something that contradicts everything they thought they knew.

The word suggests deep, complete confusion. To be mystified means to be genuinely baffled, stopped in your tracks by something you can't explain. Your teacher might be mystified by how your homework disappeared when you swear you put it in your backpack. Your parents might be mystified by how the cookies vanished from the jar.

The related word mystery comes from the same root: both words capture that feeling of encountering something strange and hard to explain. When you mystify someone, you've created a puzzle they can't solve, at least not yet.