From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Confusion \Con*fu"sion\, noun [F. confusion, L. confusio.]
1. The state of being mixed or blended so as to produce indistinctness or error; indistinct combination; disorder; tumult.
The confusion of thought to which the Aristotelians were liable. --Whewell.
Moody beggars starving for a time Of pellmell havoc and confusion. --Shak.
2. The state of being abashed or disconcerted; loss self-possession; perturbation; shame.
Confusion dwelt in every face And fear in every heart. --Spectator.
Ruin seize thee, ruthless king, Confusion on thy banners wait. --Gray.
4. One who confuses; a confounder. [Obs.] --Chapmen.
{Confusion of goods} (Law), the intermixture of the goods of two or more persons, so that their respective portions can no longer be distinguished. --Blackstone. --Bouvier.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: disorder resulting from a failure to behave predictably; "the army retreated in confusion"
2: a mental state characterized by a lack of clear and orderly thought and behavior; "a confusion of impressions" [syn: {mental confusion}, {confusedness}, {disarray}]
3: a feeling of embarrassment that leaves you confused [syn: {discombobulation}]
4: an act causing a disorderly combination of elements with identities lost and distinctions blended; "the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel"
5: a mistake that results from taking one thing to be another; "he changed his name in order to avoid confusion with the notorious outlaw" [syn: {mix-up}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
200 Moby Thesaurus words for "confusion": abashment, agitation, aloofness, ambiguity, ambiguousness, amorphia, amorphism, amorphousness, anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism, anarchy, antinomianism, assortment, ataxia, babel, baffle, bafflement, balk, bashfulness, bedlam, befuddlement, bewilderment, blurriness, bother, botheration, chagrin, chaos, check, checkmate, cloud, clutter, combining, commotion, confounding, confoundment, contradiction, coyness, criminal syndicalism, daze, demureness, demurity, derangement, destruction, devastation, diffusion, dilemma, din, disarrangement, disarray, discombobulation, discomfiture, discomposure, disconcert, disconcertedness, disconcertion, disconcertment, discontinuity, discountenance, discreteness, disjunction, dislocation, disorder, disorderliness, disorganization, disorientation, dispersal, dispersion, disruption, dissolution, distress, disturbance, dither, embarrassment, enigma, entropy, fabulous formless darkness, fix, flap, flummox, flurry, fluster, flutter, fog, foil, formlessness, foul-up, frenzy, frustration, fuddle, fuddlement, fuzziness, gallimaufry, hassle, havoc, haze, haziness, huddle, hullabaloo, incoherence, inconsistency, indecisiveness, indefiniteness, indeterminateness, intermingling, jam, jumble, lather, license, loss, lynch law, maze, mess, messiness, misrule, mist, mistiness, misunderstanding, mix-up, mixing, mixture, mob law, mob rule, mobocracy, morass, mortification, mousiness, muck, muddle, muddlement, mystery, nihilism, nonadhesion, noncohesion, nonplus, obscurity, ochlocracy, orderlessness, pandemonium, perplexity, perturbation, pickle, plight, pother, predicament, primal chaos, problem, pucker, puzzle, puzzlement, quandary, rebellion, rebuff, repulse, reversal, reverse, revolution, riddle, rout, ruffle, ruination, scattering, scrape, screw-up, self-consciousness, separateness, setback, shambles, shamefacedness, shamefastness, shapelessness, shuffle, shyness, skittishness, snafu, snarl, stagefright, stammering, stew, sweat, swivet, syndicalism, timidity, timidness, timorousness, tizzy, tohubohu, tumult, turbulence, turmoil, unadherence, unadhesiveness, unassuredness, unclearness, unease, uneasiness, unruliness, unsettlement, untenacity, upset, vagueness
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