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Conundrum vs Baffle - What's the difference?

conundrum | baffle |

As nouns the difference between conundrum and baffle

is that conundrum is a difficult question or riddle, especially one using a play on words in the answer while baffle is a device used to dampen the effects of such things as sound, light, or fluid specifically, a baffle is a surface which is placed inside an open area to inhibit direct motion from one part to another, without preventing motion altogether.

As a verb baffle is

(obsolete) to publicly disgrace, especially of a recreant knight.

conundrum

English

Noun

(en-noun)
  • A difficult question or riddle, especially one using a play on words in the answer.
  • * 1816 ,
    • “Why should I understand that, or anything else?” asked the girl. “Don’t bother my head by asking conundrums , I beg of you. Just let me discover myself in my own way.”
  • A difficult choice or decision that must be made.
  • * 2004 , , statement read before being sentenced to five months in prison
    • And while I am more concerned about the well-being of others than for myself, more hurt for them and for their losses than for my own, more worried for their futures than for the future of Martha Stewart the person, you are faced with a conundrum , a problem of monumental, to me, proportions.

    Quotations

    * (English Citations of "conundrum")

    Synonyms

    * (difficult question) brain-teaser, enigma, puzzle, riddle * (difficult choice) dilemma

    External links

    * (wikipedia "conundrum") * English terms with unknown etymologies

    baffle

    English

    Verb

    (baffl)
  • (obsolete) To publicly disgrace, especially of a recreant knight.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , VI.7:
    • He by the heeles him hung upon a tree, / And baffuld so, that all which passed by / The picture of his punishment might see […].
  • (obsolete) To hoodwink or deceive (someone).
    • (Barrow)
  • To bewilder completely; to confuse or perplex.
    • I am baffled by the contradictions and omissions in the instructions.
  • * Prescott
    • calculations so difficult as to have baffled , until within a recent period, the most enlightened nations
  • * John Locke
    • The mere intricacy of a question should not baffle us.
  • * Cowper
    • the art that baffles time's tyrannic claim
  • * South
    • a suitable scripture ready to repel and baffle them all
  • To struggle in vain.
    • A ship baffles with the winds.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A device used to dampen the effects of such things as sound, light, or fluid. Specifically, a baffle is a surface which is placed inside an open area to inhibit direct motion from one part to another, without preventing motion altogether.
    • Tanker trucks use baffles to keep the liquids inside from sloshing around.
  • An architectural feature designed to confuse enemies or make them vulnerable.