From bewilder + -ing.

• (RP, America) IPA: /bɪˈwɪldəɹɪŋ/, /bɪˈwɪldɹɪŋ/

bewildering

1. Very baffling, confusing, or perplexing, often due to a very large choice being available.

   Synonyms: dizzying, head-scratching, mind-boggling, puzzlesome, Thesaurus:confusing

   Antonyms: unbewildering

   There was a bewildering collection of curiosities filling the room.

   • 1791–1792 (published 1793), William Wordsworth, “Descriptive Sketches, Taken during a Pedestrian Tour among the Alps”, in Henry [Hope] Reed, editor, The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Philadelphia, Pa.: Hayes & Zell, […], published 1860, →OCLC ↗, page 33 ↗, column 1:

     —At once bewildering mists around him close, / And cold and hunger are the least of woes; / The Demon of the Snow, with angry roar / Descending, shuts for aye his prison door.

   • 1843 December 18, Charles Dickens, “Stave Three. The Second of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC ↗, pages 98–99 ↗:

     The two young Cratchits laughed tremendously at the idea of Peter's being a man of business; and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from between his collars, as if he were deliberating what particular investments he should favour when he came into the receipt of that bewildering income.

• bewilder
• bewilderment

• French: abasourdissant
• German: befremdlich, irreführend, irremachend, irritierend, konfus machend, verblüffend, verwirrend
• Italian: sconcertante
• Spanish: desconcertante

bewildering (plural bewilderings)

1. Gerund of bewilder: bewilderment.
   • 1806, William Wordsworth, “The Redbreast and the Butterfly”, in Poems, in Two Volumes, volume I, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], published 1807, →OCLC ↗, page 17 ↗:

     Can this be the Bird, to man so good, / Our consecrated Robin! / That, after their bewildering, / Did cover with leaves the little children, / So painfully in the wood?

   • 1852 July, Herman Melville, “Book VI. Isabel, and the First Part of the Story of Isabel.”, in Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC ↗, section V, page 168 ↗:

     Then the bewilderings of the comings and the goings of the coffins at the large and populous house; these bewilderings came over me. What was it to be dead? What is it to be living?

1. Present participle and gerund of bewilder