befuddlement

befuddle +‎ -ment

befuddlement (countable and uncountable, plural befuddlements)

1. The state of being befuddled.
   • 1907, Algernon Blackwood, “Max Hensig—Bacteriologist and Murderer” Chapter 4, in The Listener and Other Stories, New York: Knopf, 1917, p. 105,

     It was, of course, an effect of hypnotism, he remembered thinking, vaguely through the befuddlement of his drink—this culminating effect of an evil and remorseless personality acting upon one that was diseased and extra receptive.

   • 1985, Don DeLillo, White Noise, Penguin, 1986, Part I, Chapter 21, p. 162,

     A change came over his wind-beaten face, a slight befuddlement, the shock of some minor fact jarred loose.

• bafflement
• bewilderment
• confusion
• perplexity
• puzzlement