different between bafflement vs riddle

English

Etymology

From baffle +? -ment.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?baf(?)lm?nt/

Noun

bafflement (countable and uncountable, plural bafflements)

1. (uncountable) The state or result of being baffled, puzzled, or confused.

   • He made a gesture of bafflement.

     "None whatever—it's beyond me," he confessed.

   • 2008, Chris Rojek, Brit-Myth: Who Do the British Think They Are?, Reaktion Books (?ISBN)

     The error here is to confuse British composure with the appearance of bafflement, embarrassment and reserve.

2. (countable) Something that causes a state of confusion or puzzlement.
   • 2005 Dec. 16, Josh Tyrangiel, "Best of 2005: Music," Time:

     The cartoon characters on the front cover, the irritatingly meaningless track names . . . make it seem like a concept album about global warming for kids. Since the lyrics remain a bafflement, it might well be.

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???d?l/
• Rhymes: -?d?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English redel, redels, from Old English r?dels, r?delse (“counsel, opinion, imagination, riddle”), from Proto-West Germanic *r?disl? (“counsel, conjecture”). Analyzable as rede (“advice”) +? -le. Akin to Old English r?dan (“to read, advise, interpret”).

Noun

riddle (plural riddles)

1. A verbal puzzle, mystery, or other problem of an intellectual nature.

   Synonyms: enigma, conundrum, brain-teaser

   • Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ¶ "I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."

2. An ancient verbal, poetic, or literary form, in which, rather than a rhyme scheme, there are parallel opposing expressions with a hidden meaning.

Derived terms

• riddler

Related terms

• a riddle wrapped up in an enigma
• riddle stick

Translations

Verb

riddle (third-person singular simple present riddles, present participle riddling, simple past and past participle riddled)

1. To speak ambiguously or enigmatically.
2. (transitive) To solve, answer, or explicate a riddle or question.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English riddil, ridelle (“sieve”), from Old English hriddel (“sieve”), alteration of earlier hridder, hr?der, from Proto-Germanic *hr?dr?, *hr?dr? (“sieve”), from Proto-Germanic *hrid- (“to shake”), from Proto-Indo-European *krey-. Akin to German Reiter (“sieve”), Old Norse hreinn (“pure, clean”), Old High German hreini (“pure, clean”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (hrains, “clean, pure”). More at rinse.

Noun

riddle (plural riddles)

2. A sieve with coarse meshes, usually of wire, for separating coarser materials from finer, as chaff from grain, cinders from ashes, or gravel from sand.
3. A board with a row of pins, set zigzag, between which wire is drawn to straighten it.

Translations

Verb

riddle (third-person singular simple present riddles, present participle riddling, simple past and past participle riddled)

1. To put something through a riddle or sieve, to sieve, to sift.
2. To fill with holes like a riddle.

3. To fill or spread throughout; to pervade.

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English riddel, ridel, redel, rudel, from Old French ridel ("a plaited stuff; curtain"; > Medieval Latin ridellus), from rider (“to wrinkle”), from Old High German r?dan (“to turn; wrap; twist; wrinkle”), from Proto-Germanic *wr?þan? (“to turn; wind”). More at writhe. Doublet of rideau.

Noun

riddle (plural riddles)

1. (obsolete) A curtain; bed-curtain
2. (religious) One of the pair of curtains enclosing an altar on the north and south

Etymology 4

From Middle English ridlen, from the noun (see above).

Verb

riddle (third-person singular simple present riddles, present participle riddling, simple past and past participle riddled)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To plait

Further reading

• riddle (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• riddle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• dreidl, lidder