Definition of "puzzlement" [puz•zle•ment]

• The state of being confused or baffled; perplexity. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Now the question causing some puzzlement is why this leading light in one of the world's biggest banks should have been persuaded to move into the chief executive's chair at Lloyds Banking Group, a U. K.-only operation that was deeply damaged by its purchase of the massively over-stretched HBOS."
• "When they look at me in puzzlement I explain that if they would not give up their spare time to police the streets for nothing why should I?."
• "My puzzlement is literal: what the heck is them things?"