perplex
per-PLEKSverbMeaning to confuse and trouble someone with something hard to understand
Memory hook PER-PLEX: a PUZZLING X. Ivy finds a big X painted on the sidewalk, with no note and no arrow. It perplexes her all week.
The strange thumping in the attic perplexed the whole family.
In context The math problem perplexed even the teacher at first; she stared at it for a full minute before she spotted the trick hidden in the second line.
Similar puzzle, confuse, baffle, bewilder
Opposite clarify, enlighten
From Latin perplexus, “tangled, confused”: per (thoroughly) + plexus (woven, braided).