# puzzle

Pronunciation: US say "PUZ-uhl" /ˈpʌzəl/; UK

## Noun

1. A game, played alone or with others, that takes some effort to work out or complete.
   - Simple: A game you solve by working out the answer, often tricky and fun.
   - _She enjoys any puzzle that takes real effort to solve._
   - _The party included several puzzles designed for small teams._
3. Something that baffles people because it is hard to understand or to make sense of.
   - Simple: Anything that is hard to understand or figure out.
   - _The origin of the artifact remains a puzzle to historians._
   - _His disappearance is one of the great puzzles of the case._
5. A flat picture cut into irregular interlocking pieces meant to be reassembled into the whole image.
   - Simple: A picture cut into many small pieces that you fit back together.
   - _He glued the completed puzzle to a board and hung it on the wall._
   - _Half the puzzle pieces were missing from the old box._
6. A grid-based word game in which clues lead to answers written into numbered squares.
   - Simple: A word game with a grid where you fill in answers using clues.
   - _The Sunday puzzle had clues that crossed both directions across the grid._
   - _He penciled answers into the puzzle, counting letters for each clue._
7. A question or statement deliberately phrased so that it requires clever thought to answer.
   - Simple: A tricky question or word game with a clever, hidden answer.
   - _The sphinx posed a puzzle whose answer turned out to be 'man.'_
   - _He loves puzzles that turn on a single clever word._
8. The state of being confused or perplexed about something.
   - Simple: The feeling of being confused and unable to understand something.
   - _She remained in a puzzle, turning the mystery over and over in her mind._
   - _His evident puzzle at the question made everyone laugh._

## Verb

2. To perplex or confuse someone, leaving them faced with a mystery they cannot explain.
   - Simple: To confuse someone so they cannot understand or explain something.
   - _The detective's odd behavior puzzles his colleagues._
   - _These results puzzle scientists who expected a clear pattern._
4. To think long and carefully about something while feeling bewildered.
   - Simple: To think hard about something for a long time because it confuses you.
   - _Scholars still puzzle over the meaning of the ancient text._
   - _He puzzled endlessly about why she had left._
9. To tangle something or make it intricate and difficult to resolve.
   - Simple: To make something tangled or hard to sort out.

## Noun

10. An object made with marvelous skill; something of ingenious construction. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: An object made with amazing skill and clever design.
   - _The cathedral's interlocking vaults stood as a puzzle of medieval engineering._
   - _He kept on his shelf a little puzzle of carved wood, each joint hidden from the eye._

## Origin

The origin is uncertain; it was originally "pusle". It possibly comes from "pose" (to perplex or interrogate) plus the frequentative suffix "-le". The verb meaning "to perplex" (1590s) seems to predate the noun senses, such as the "state of being perplexed" (around 1600) and later the "toy" (1814).

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/puzzle (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).