Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 12, 2025 is: flummox \FLUM-uks\ verb To flummox someone is to [confuse](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/confuse) or [perplex](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perplex) them. // The actor was easily flummoxed by last-minute changes to the script. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flummox) Examples: “If Thursday crosswords flummox you, remember that it’s much better for your stress level to do your best and sharpen your skills than to become angry because you aren’t sure what’s going on.” — Deb Amlen, The New York Times, 11 June 2025 Did you know? When it comes to the origins of flummox, etymologists are, well, flummoxed. No one really knows where the word comes from. The first known print use of the verb flummox appeared in Charles Dickens’ novel [The Pickwick Papers](https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Pickwick-Papers) in the mid-1830s, while the adjective [flummoxed](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flummoxed) appeared italicized a few years earlier in a Dublin newspaper article about laborers striking against employers who oppose their rights: “Lord Cloncurry is actually flummoxed. The people refuse to work for him.” To be flummoxed by something is to be utterly confused by it—that is, to be baffled, puzzled, bewildered, completely unable to understand. Fortunately, a word can be used even if everyone is flummoxed by its etymology, and by the end of the 19th century, flummox had become quite common in both British and American English.