puzzle
American Heritage Dictionary:
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puz·zle
(pŭz'əl) 
v., -zled, -zling, -zles. v.tr.
v., -zled, -zling, -zles. v.tr.
- To baffle or confuse mentally by presenting or being a difficult problem or matter.
- To clarify or solve (something confusing) by reasoning or study: He puzzled out the significance of the statement.
- To be perplexed.
- To ponder over a problem in an effort to solve or understand it.
- Something, such as a game, toy, or problem, that requires ingenuity and often persistence in solving or assembling.
- Something that baffles or confuses.
- The condition of being perplexed; bewilderment.
[Origin unknown.]
puzzler puz'zler n.SYNONYMS puzzle, perplex, mystify, bewilder, confound. These verbs mean to cause bafflement or confusion. Puzzle suggests difficulty in solving or interpreting something: "The poor creature puzzled me once . . . by a question merely natural and innocent" (Daniel Defoe). Perplex stresses uncertainty or anxiety, as over reaching an understanding or finding a solution: a dilemma that perplexed the committee. Mystify implies defying comprehension by obscuring facts: symbolism that mystifies me. Bewilder emphasizes extreme mental confusion: "The old know what they want; the young are sad and bewildered" (Logan Pearsall Smith). To confound is to confuse and astonish: God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise (I Corinthians 1:27).
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See more Puzzle games.
Roget's Thesaurus:
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puzzle
also puzzle out
verb
- To cause to be unclear in mind or intent: addle, befuddle, bewilder, confound, confuse, discombobulate, dizzy, fuddle, jumble, mix up, muddle, mystify, perplex. Informal throw. Idioms: make one's headreelswimwhirl. See clear/unclear, feelings.
phrasal verb - puzzle out
- To find the key to (a code, for example): break, crack, decipher, decrypt. See knowledge/ignorance.
noun
- Anything that arouses curiosity or perplexes because it is unexplained, inexplicable, or secret: conundrum, enigma, mystery, perplexity, puzzler, riddle. See show/hide.
Antonyms by Answers.com:
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puzzle
v
Definition: baffle, confuse
Antonyms: clarify, elucidate, explain, illustrate, unravel
v
Definition: wonder about
Antonyms: not care
Oxford Companion to the Mind:
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puzzles
A puzzle is a problem having one or more specific objectives, contrived for the principal purpose of exercising one's ingenuity and/or patience. This definition, whilst separating the recreational aspects of puzzles from the undesirable features of problems, in no way explains why humans find them so necessary or enjoyable. A random survey will usually show that nearly everyone has recently played with a jigsaw, a crossword, or a mechanical puzzle and that they have answered a riddle or composed a pun. One might have anticipated that, with lives full of worries about the unavoidable problems of survival, mankind would studiously avoid volunteering to solve any unnecessary puzzles. The reality is different. Puzzles are found in every culture from their early myths and religions through to their airport shops and internet websites. It seems that evolution has identified the didactic value of puzzles and now they are a part of what makes us a successful species.
In the past when most people could not read, pub signs and coats of arms often incorporated visual puns. In much early art there is imagery that appears puzzling to us today only because we have forgotten either the meaning of the symbols or the function of the object depicted. Many word puzzles were produced combining the visual and riddling context into anagrams and acrostics. There is a book (Anagrammata regia) published in 1626 which contains anagrams, chronograms (where the capitalized letters are added together to produce the date of publication), and a triple acrostic. Rebuses, in which pictures replace some or all of the words, were very popular in the 18th century; some are more puzzling today than when they were produced — from looking at a tiny picture, would you recognize a porter's knot? The porter's knot could be used to represent 'not'. Some were very silly: a 'snake' might be used to represent 'Hiss' or 'His' as in 'His Royal Highness'.
Riddles, like crossword clues and rebus picture puzzles, usually rely on special, often culturally exclusive, knowledge whereas mechanical puzzles transcend cultural and language barriers. A mechanical puzzle is a physical object that incorporates the definition given at the beginning of this article. The mechanical puzzle contains all that is required for its solution within itself.
Legend tells that Gordius, a minor king in Anatolia c.300 bc, had tied his ox cart to the temple gate with an intricate knot. As it was prophesied that whoever untied the Gordian Knot would rule all Asia, it may be considered as early example of both a topological puzzle and a puzzle competition. Alexander the Great arrived and promptly cut the knot. This has been held up as an example of lateral thinking, of decisiveness, and of tackling problems in novel ways; however, what succeeding generations have generally failed to notice is that this was cheating and, just as validly, it may be reasoned that this is why Alexander never did rule the whole of Asia.
Archimedes is reputed to have played with a dissected square puzzle; did this perhaps start with the accidental breaking of a tile? If you drop a china plate, have you just invented an assembly puzzle? Tangle a ball of wool — is it a topological puzzle? Even these accidental problems can become puzzles if approached in a recreational way.
'Cup and ball' is one of the earliest dexterity puzzles and together with its variants, where you have to try and stab a stick through bone rings, has probably been popular since neolithic times, to develop stabbing skills.
Two thousand years ago, Hero of Alexandria wrote in his work about pneumatics of various 'trick' vessels, among others for pouring wine and water from the same jug, and for producing 'magic' fountains. The Exeter Museum in England has a magnificent puzzle jug made c.1300 in France. This is a true puzzle jug with the challenge of drinking from the jug without spilling any liquid through the many holes below the rim.
Before the existence of local banks, one concealed one's valuables in secret compartments, which were the precursors of puzzle boxes. Before the technical sophistication of the 1800s, many locks relied on puzzling mechanisms in addition to, or instead of, a key. The so-called 'Chinese rings puzzle' was used in many parts of the world as a lock (Fig. 1), and, though it was probably more of a delayer than a real deterrent to a thief, it certainly qualifies as an early tanglement puzzle. The mathematician Cardan wrote about it in 1550.
A six-piece burr puzzle is illustrated in Sebastien Leclerc's engraving of The Academy of Science and Arts in 1698. However objects manufactured solely as puzzles did not really manifest themselves until the start of the Industrial Revolution and the advent of a relatively wealthy middle class and a wider number of people seeking and able to afford an education for their children. Initially puzzles were produced as paper or wood versions of problems that were appearing in books of recreational mathematics and 'natural philosophy', as Science was called. The jigsaw was initially invented to teach geography, but history, religion, and other subjects soon followed and finally they were developed for purely recreational purposes.
Around 1810 tangrams (a puzzle in which seven geometric pieces are used to create many pictures) and other ivory puzzles began to arrive in Europe and the USA from China. However there is no evidence, other than hearsay, that any puzzles, other than the tangram, were made in China for the Chinese prior to this date. Of the ivory puzzles that came from China apart from the tangram, most had been documented as existing in Europe beforehand and so it is not unreasonable that they were originally made exclusively to the order of Westerners for the export trade. The most significant feature of these puzzles is that, apart from jigsaws, they were the only puzzles that most people ever saw; thus 'Chinese puzzle' became the generic term for any mechanical puzzle other than jigsaws or dissected maps. To Europeans the Chinese were an enigmatic race full of mystery and secrets and so it would be natural, albeit maybe incorrectly, to credit them with the invention of such devious objects.
As industrial society developed, both leisure time and the number of puzzles being manufactured increased. William Jones's Catalogue of Optical, Mathematical, and Philosophical Instruments (1788) lists only a few puzzles among his scientific apparatus. In the 1840s a Mr Crambrook was producing a catalogue with over 100 puzzles and holding what is believed to be the first ever puzzle exhibition. In 1893 Hoffmann published his Puzzles Old and New listing several hundred puzzles in then current production, but even he was only scratching the surface of what had become available.
Puzzle crazes probably started with a tangram craze in the 1820s, followed by the 'fifteen-puzzle' craze in the 1870s. There was a well-known puzzle of arranging the numbers 1 to 16 on a four by four grid so that each line adds up to 34. Sam Loyd removed the number 16 and arranged the remaining numbers in order apart from the numbers 14 and 15. He then offered the huge prize of $1,000 to anyone who could put the puzzle in order by only sliding the pieces. Today it does not take us long to understand that a solution only exists for half the possible starting arrangements of the fifteen blocks, and that an arrangement with only 14 and 15 in the wrong order is one with no solution. However at that time most people could not comprehend why, having randomly put the pieces in the tray, sometimes they could find the solution and sometimes not. This lack of comprehension led to a craze, which spread from the USA to Europe. Loyd never actually claimed to have invented the fifteens puzzle, but he certainly started a craze the like of which was not seen again until the Rubik's cube of the 1980s which generated similar hysteria, with possibly up to 160 million being sold worldwide. It raises the interesting thought that perhaps in 2100 people will look at the cube and wonder why in the 1980s we found it so difficult to solve.
Before the computer and communications revolution the same puzzle ideas were reinvented again and again. Today there are more different types of puzzle than ever before. The exchange of ideas and information on the internet is reducing the duplication of effort and enabling the creation of ever more baffling puzzles. There is now a continuous and entertaining struggle between metagrobologists (people who are puzzled or puzzling): some use computers to solve puzzles, some use computers to make puzzles more difficult, and some search for puzzles that cannot be solved on a computer at all. Craftsmen who could never have made a living by making such exclusive items twenty years ago can now find customers for highly complex puzzles anywhere in the world. Thus the latest technology is enabling a revival of traditional crafts applied to new ideas. Computers are also enabling the modelling of puzzles in virtual reality that cannot exist in our physical three-dimensional world; for example, assembly puzzles where pieces are composed of cubes joined by their corners, and mazes in non-Euclidian space where taking three right turns on a square grid does not bring you back to your starting point.
When playing with a puzzle we are having too much fun to notice that we are exercising our brains. Puzzles play tricks with the way we think and teach us to think in new ways.
Fig. 1. Ivory cup and ball, Chinese rings, tangram, and six-piece burr.
(Published 2004)
In the past when most people could not read, pub signs and coats of arms often incorporated visual puns. In much early art there is imagery that appears puzzling to us today only because we have forgotten either the meaning of the symbols or the function of the object depicted. Many word puzzles were produced combining the visual and riddling context into anagrams and acrostics. There is a book (Anagrammata regia) published in 1626 which contains anagrams, chronograms (where the capitalized letters are added together to produce the date of publication), and a triple acrostic. Rebuses, in which pictures replace some or all of the words, were very popular in the 18th century; some are more puzzling today than when they were produced — from looking at a tiny picture, would you recognize a porter's knot? The porter's knot could be used to represent 'not'. Some were very silly: a 'snake' might be used to represent 'Hiss' or 'His' as in 'His Royal Highness'.
Riddles, like crossword clues and rebus picture puzzles, usually rely on special, often culturally exclusive, knowledge whereas mechanical puzzles transcend cultural and language barriers. A mechanical puzzle is a physical object that incorporates the definition given at the beginning of this article. The mechanical puzzle contains all that is required for its solution within itself.
Legend tells that Gordius, a minor king in Anatolia c.300 bc, had tied his ox cart to the temple gate with an intricate knot. As it was prophesied that whoever untied the Gordian Knot would rule all Asia, it may be considered as early example of both a topological puzzle and a puzzle competition. Alexander the Great arrived and promptly cut the knot. This has been held up as an example of lateral thinking, of decisiveness, and of tackling problems in novel ways; however, what succeeding generations have generally failed to notice is that this was cheating and, just as validly, it may be reasoned that this is why Alexander never did rule the whole of Asia.
Archimedes is reputed to have played with a dissected square puzzle; did this perhaps start with the accidental breaking of a tile? If you drop a china plate, have you just invented an assembly puzzle? Tangle a ball of wool — is it a topological puzzle? Even these accidental problems can become puzzles if approached in a recreational way.
'Cup and ball' is one of the earliest dexterity puzzles and together with its variants, where you have to try and stab a stick through bone rings, has probably been popular since neolithic times, to develop stabbing skills.
Two thousand years ago, Hero of Alexandria wrote in his work about pneumatics of various 'trick' vessels, among others for pouring wine and water from the same jug, and for producing 'magic' fountains. The Exeter Museum in England has a magnificent puzzle jug made c.1300 in France. This is a true puzzle jug with the challenge of drinking from the jug without spilling any liquid through the many holes below the rim.
Before the existence of local banks, one concealed one's valuables in secret compartments, which were the precursors of puzzle boxes. Before the technical sophistication of the 1800s, many locks relied on puzzling mechanisms in addition to, or instead of, a key. The so-called 'Chinese rings puzzle' was used in many parts of the world as a lock (Fig. 1), and, though it was probably more of a delayer than a real deterrent to a thief, it certainly qualifies as an early tanglement puzzle. The mathematician Cardan wrote about it in 1550.
A six-piece burr puzzle is illustrated in Sebastien Leclerc's engraving of The Academy of Science and Arts in 1698. However objects manufactured solely as puzzles did not really manifest themselves until the start of the Industrial Revolution and the advent of a relatively wealthy middle class and a wider number of people seeking and able to afford an education for their children. Initially puzzles were produced as paper or wood versions of problems that were appearing in books of recreational mathematics and 'natural philosophy', as Science was called. The jigsaw was initially invented to teach geography, but history, religion, and other subjects soon followed and finally they were developed for purely recreational purposes.
Around 1810 tangrams (a puzzle in which seven geometric pieces are used to create many pictures) and other ivory puzzles began to arrive in Europe and the USA from China. However there is no evidence, other than hearsay, that any puzzles, other than the tangram, were made in China for the Chinese prior to this date. Of the ivory puzzles that came from China apart from the tangram, most had been documented as existing in Europe beforehand and so it is not unreasonable that they were originally made exclusively to the order of Westerners for the export trade. The most significant feature of these puzzles is that, apart from jigsaws, they were the only puzzles that most people ever saw; thus 'Chinese puzzle' became the generic term for any mechanical puzzle other than jigsaws or dissected maps. To Europeans the Chinese were an enigmatic race full of mystery and secrets and so it would be natural, albeit maybe incorrectly, to credit them with the invention of such devious objects.
As industrial society developed, both leisure time and the number of puzzles being manufactured increased. William Jones's Catalogue of Optical, Mathematical, and Philosophical Instruments (1788) lists only a few puzzles among his scientific apparatus. In the 1840s a Mr Crambrook was producing a catalogue with over 100 puzzles and holding what is believed to be the first ever puzzle exhibition. In 1893 Hoffmann published his Puzzles Old and New listing several hundred puzzles in then current production, but even he was only scratching the surface of what had become available.
Puzzle crazes probably started with a tangram craze in the 1820s, followed by the 'fifteen-puzzle' craze in the 1870s. There was a well-known puzzle of arranging the numbers 1 to 16 on a four by four grid so that each line adds up to 34. Sam Loyd removed the number 16 and arranged the remaining numbers in order apart from the numbers 14 and 15. He then offered the huge prize of $1,000 to anyone who could put the puzzle in order by only sliding the pieces. Today it does not take us long to understand that a solution only exists for half the possible starting arrangements of the fifteen blocks, and that an arrangement with only 14 and 15 in the wrong order is one with no solution. However at that time most people could not comprehend why, having randomly put the pieces in the tray, sometimes they could find the solution and sometimes not. This lack of comprehension led to a craze, which spread from the USA to Europe. Loyd never actually claimed to have invented the fifteens puzzle, but he certainly started a craze the like of which was not seen again until the Rubik's cube of the 1980s which generated similar hysteria, with possibly up to 160 million being sold worldwide. It raises the interesting thought that perhaps in 2100 people will look at the cube and wonder why in the 1980s we found it so difficult to solve.
Before the computer and communications revolution the same puzzle ideas were reinvented again and again. Today there are more different types of puzzle than ever before. The exchange of ideas and information on the internet is reducing the duplication of effort and enabling the creation of ever more baffling puzzles. There is now a continuous and entertaining struggle between metagrobologists (people who are puzzled or puzzling): some use computers to solve puzzles, some use computers to make puzzles more difficult, and some search for puzzles that cannot be solved on a computer at all. Craftsmen who could never have made a living by making such exclusive items twenty years ago can now find customers for highly complex puzzles anywhere in the world. Thus the latest technology is enabling a revival of traditional crafts applied to new ideas. Computers are also enabling the modelling of puzzles in virtual reality that cannot exist in our physical three-dimensional world; for example, assembly puzzles where pieces are composed of cubes joined by their corners, and mazes in non-Euclidian space where taking three right turns on a square grid does not bring you back to your starting point.
When playing with a puzzle we are having too much fun to notice that we are exercising our brains. Puzzles play tricks with the way we think and teach us to think in new ways.
Fig. 1. Ivory cup and ball, Chinese rings, tangram, and six-piece burr.
(Published 2004)
— James Dalgety
Word Tutor:
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puzzle
IN BRIEF: A question, problem, or device designed for testing skill or cleverness.
We worked for hours on the puzzle only to discover that there was one piece missing.
LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!
Sign Language Videos:
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puzzle
sign description: Both hands with U-handshapes touching each other and flipping twice.
Random House Word Menu:
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categories related to 'puzzled'
See crossword solutions for the clue Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Puzzle
For other uses, see Puzzle (disambiguation).
"Puzzle solving" redirects here. For the concept in Thomas Kuhn's philosophy of science, see normal science.
| Part of a series on |
| Puzzles |
|---|
 |
A puzzle is a problem or enigma that tests the ingenuity of the solver. In a basic puzzle, one is intended to put together pieces in a logical way in order to come up with the desired solution. Puzzles are often contrived as a form of entertainment, but they can also stem from serious mathematical or logistical problems — in such cases, their successful resolution can be a significant contribution to mathematical research.[1]
Solutions to puzzles may require recognizing patterns and creating a particular order. People with a high inductive reasoning aptitude may be better at solving these puzzles than others. Puzzles based on the process of inquiry and discovery to complete may be solved faster by those with good deduction skills.
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Contents
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History
The first jigsaw puzzle was created around 1760, when John Spilsbury, a British engraver and mapmaker, mounted a map on a sheet of wood that he then sawed around each individual country. Spilsbury used the product to aid in teaching geography. After catching on with the wider public, this remained the primary use of jigsaw puzzles until about 1820.[2]
By the early 20th century, magazines and newspapers found that they could increase their daily subscriptions by publishing puzzle contests. Puzzles may also include letters, numbers, shapes, and riddles.
-
A puzzle undone, which forms a cube.
-
Puzzle cube; a type of puzzle.
-
A jigsaw puzzle usually forms a picture when complete.
-
An example of a British-style crossword puzzle.
Contemporary puzzles
A sample of notable puzzle authors includes Sam Loyd, Henry Dudeney, Boris Kordemsky and, more recently, David J. Bodycombe, Will Shortz, Lloyd King and Martin Gardner.
There are organizations and events catering to puzzle enthusiasts such as Ravenchase, the International Puzzle Party, the World Puzzle Championship and the National Puzzlers' League. There are also Puzzlehunts like Maze of Games or the Rittenhouse Chronicles.
The Rubik's Cube and other combination puzzles are toys based on puzzles that can be stimulating toys for kids and are a recreational activity for adults. Puzzles can be used to hide or obscure objects. A good example is a puzzle box used to hide jewelry.
Games are often based on a puzzle. For example there are thousands of computer puzzle games and many letter games, word games and mathematical games which require solutions to puzzles as part of the gameplay. One of the most popular puzzle games is Tetris.
A chess problem is a puzzle that uses chess pieces on a chess board.
Types of puzzles
The large number of puzzles that have been created can be divided into categories, for example a maze is a type of tour puzzle. Other categories include construction puzzles, stick puzzles, tiling puzzles, transport puzzles, disentanglement puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, lock puzzles, folding puzzles, combination puzzles and mechanical puzzles.
- Lateral thinking puzzles, which can be open ended and sometimes referred to as situation puzzles, or 'closed' lateral thinking puzzles which are designed to have only one correct and obvious answer.
- Logic puzzles using a chess board, such as Knight's Tour and Eight queens.
- Mathematical problems such as the missing square puzzle. Many of these are "impossible puzzles", such as the Seven Bridges of Königsberg, Water, gas, and electricity and Three cups problem. See List of impossible puzzles.
- Mathematical puzzles
- Mechanical puzzles such as the Rubik's Cube, Soma cube, Tower of Hanoi, Burr puzzle and impossible bottles.
- Meta-puzzles are puzzles which unite or incorporate elements of other puzzles. It is often found in puzzlehunts.
- Paper-and-pencil puzzles such as Connect the dots and Nonograms, and the Logic puzzles published by Nikoli: Sudoku, Slitherlink, Kakuro, Fillomino, Hashiwokakero, Heyawake, Hitori, Light Up, Masyu, Number Link, Nurikabe, Ripple Effect, Shikaku and Kuromasu; see List of Nikoli puzzle types
- Peg solitaire
- Picture puzzles, such as sliding puzzles like the fifteen puzzle; jigsaws and variants such as Puzz-3D.
- Puzzle video game
- Sangaku
- Sokoban
- Spot the difference
- Tangram
- Word puzzles, including anagrams, crosswords, word searches and ciphers.
- The Anagram Jigsaw is a jigsaw puzzle where pieces are rearranged for two correct solutions.
Etymology
The 1989 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary dates the word puzzle (as a verb) to the end of the 16th century. That first documented use comes from a book called The Voyage of Robert Dudley...to the West Indies, 1594–95, narrated by Capt. Wyatt, by himself, and by Abram Kendall, master (published circa 1595).
Their research, based on the "chronology of the words, and still more the consideration of their sense-history, seem[s] to make it clear that the verb came first, and that the noun was its derivative."
Related categories
- Category:Puzzle books
- Category:Puzzle designers
- Category:Puzzle video games
- Category:Economic puzzles
See also
 |
Look up puzzle in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
 |
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of |
References
- ^ Kendall G., Parkes A. and Spoerer K. (2008) A Survey of NP-Complete Puzzles, International Computer Games Association Journal, 31(1), pp 13-34
- ^ Puzzle History
- Creative Puzzles of the World, 1980, Plenary Publications International
- Denkspiele Der Welt, München 1977,1981, Heinrich Hugendubel Verlag
External links
- The Jerry Slocum Mechanical Puzzle Collection Presented by the Lilly Library of Indiana University.
- The puzzle archive of the rec.puzzles newsgroup
- Puzzles at the Open Directory Project
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Translations:
Top
Puzzle
Dansk (Danish)
v. tr. - forvirre, sætte i forlegenhed, forbløffe
v. intr. - bryde sin hjerne
n. - gåde, problem, vanskeligt spørgsmål, rådvildhed, puslespil
idioms:
- crossword puzzle kryds og tværs
- puzzle about undre sig over
- puzzle out finde ud af
- puzzle over bryde sin hjerne med
Nederlands (Dutch)
raadsel, puzzel
Français (French)
v. tr. - déconcerter (qn)
v. intr. - essayer de résoudre, essayer de comprendre
n. - mystère, casse-têtes (jeux)
idioms:
- crossword puzzle mots croisés
- puzzle about réfléchir à, essayer de résoudre/de comprendre
- puzzle out résoudre, élucider, déchiffrer (une écriture), trouver (une solution), comprendre (des agissements)
- puzzle over essayer de résoudre/de comprendre, réfléchir à
Deutsch (German)
n. - Rätsel, Geduldspiel, Puzzle
v. - verwirren, rätseln
idioms:
- crossword puzzle Kreuzworträtsel
- puzzle about rätseln über
- puzzle out herausfinden
- puzzle over rätseln über
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αίνιγμα, γρίφος, μπέρδεμα, σπαζοκεφαλιά, παζλ
v. - περιπλέκω, μπερδεύω, μπουρδουκλώνω, σπαζοκεφαλιάζω
idioms:
- crossword puzzle σταυρόλεξο
- puzzle about χαζολογάω, κωλοβαράω
- puzzle out ξεδιαλύνω
- puzzle over σπαζοκεφαλιάζω με
Italiano (Italian)
enigma, indovinello, puzzle, sconcertare
idioms:
- crossword puzzle cruciverba
- puzzle about/over rompersi la testa
- puzzle out decifrare
Português (Portuguese)
n. - quebra-cabeças (m), jogo (m)
v. - intrigar
idioms:
- crossword puzzle jogo de palavras cruzadas
- puzzle about/over intrigar(-se) acerca de
- puzzle out resolver, decifrar, achar a solução
Русский (Russian)
загадка, головоломка, озадачивать
idioms:
- crossword puzzle кроссворд
- puzzle about/over ломать голову над
- puzzle out разгадывать
Español (Spanish)
v. tr. - dejar perplejo, desconcertar
v. intr. - dejar perplejo, desconcertar
n. - enigma, misterio, acertijo, adivinanza, rompecabezas
idioms:
- crossword puzzle crucigrama, palabras cruzadas
- puzzle about romperse la cabeza, devanarse los sesos
- puzzle out descifrar, esclarecer, resolver
- puzzle over romperse la cabeza, devanarse los sesos
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - bryderi, pussel, gåta
v. - förbrylla, grubbla
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
使迷惑, 苦思而得出, 使为难, 使窘困, 感到迷惑, 苦思, 冥思苦想, 难题, 迷惑
idioms:
- crossword puzzle 纵横字谜游戏
- puzzle about 对...迷惑不解
- puzzle out 苦苦思索
- puzzle over 对...苦苦思索, 为...大伤脑筋
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
v. tr. - 使迷惑, 苦思而得出, 使為難, 使窘困
v. intr. - 感到迷惑, 苦思, 冥思苦想
n. - 難題, 迷惑
idioms:
- crossword puzzle 縱橫字謎遊戲
- puzzle about 對...迷惑不解
- puzzle out 苦苦思索
- puzzle over 對...苦苦思索, 為...大傷腦筋
한국어 (Korean)
v. tr. - 당황케 하다
v. intr. - 당황하다
n. - 수수께끼
idioms:
- puzzle about ~부심하다
- puzzle out 생각해 내다
- puzzle over 어쩔 줄 모르다
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 当惑, 困らせる人, 難問, 考え物, パズル, 困惑
v. - 途方に暮れさせる, 考え込む, 途方に暮れる, 困らせる
idioms:
- puzzle about/over 途方に暮れる
- puzzle out 考え出す
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) حزورة, فزورة, أحجيه, لغز, قضيه محيرة (فعل) حير, اربك
עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - הביך, התמיה, הפליא, הצריך מחשבה רבה, פתר או הבין לאחר מחשבה רבה
v. intr. - נבוך, היה מבולבל, השקיע מחשבה רבה בבעיה או בעניין מסוים
n. - חידה, תעלומה, בעיה, משחק הרכבה, תצרף, פאזל, מבוכה
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Copyrights:
American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Roget's Thesaurus
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Oxford Companion to the Mind
The Oxford Companion to the Mind. Second Edition. Copyright © Oxford University Press, 2004. All rights reserved.
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Random House Word Menu
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Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary
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Wikipedia on Answers.com
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