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PlainSpell

bemuse

/bɪˈmjuːz/verb

bemuse is a verb meaning “To confuse or bewilder” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled B-E-M-U-S-E and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 60 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does bemuse mean?

verb

  1. 1

    To confuse or bewilder.

  2. 2

    proscribedTo be amused, especially sardonically.

  3. 3

    archaicTo devote to the Muses.

  4. 4

    obsoleteslangTo make drunk; to intoxicate.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce bemuse?

  • US /bɪˈmjuːz/
  • US /bəˈmjuːz/

Bemuse has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-bemuse.ogg, En-au-bemuse.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of bemuse

  • bemuses present, singular, he/she/it
  • bemusing participle, present
  • bemused participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is bemuse?

Bemuse appears about once in every 60 million words in written English, the 243,301st most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Bemuse in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense to confuse or bewilder:

LanguageWords
Frenchdéconcerter, stupéfier
Germanverwirren, verblüffen, irritieren, nachdenklich stimmen, verwundern
Portugueseconfuso
Spanishdesconcertar

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does bemuse come from?

From be- + muse. In meaning, influenced by bemaze and later amuse.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).