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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

bamboozle.

To con, defraud, trick, to make a fool of, to humbug or impose on someone.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/bæmˈbuː.zl̩/Received-Pronunciation/bæmˈbu.zl̩/General-American
  1. To con, defraud, trick, to make a fool of, to humbug or impose on someone.

    informal · transitive
  2. To confuse, frustrate or perplex.

    informal · transitive
    He's completely bamboozled by the changes in the computer system.
Where this word comes from

Derivative of 17th-century vernacular bam (“to trick, to con”), which is a derivative of bam in noun use (fraudster, cheat). Possibly from French embobiner.

noun/bæmˈbuː.zl̩/Received-Pronunciation/bæmˈbu.zl̩/General-American
  1. A cheat, hoax, or imposition.

    informal · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Derivative of 17th-century vernacular bam (“to trick, to con”), which is a derivative of bam in noun use (fraudster, cheat). Possibly from French embobiner.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.