verb
confound
To confuse by failing to distinguish separate things.
People often confound a high salary with lasting financial security.
Etymology
The Latin verb means to pour together or mix. Confounding separate things mentally treats them as one mixture and loses the distinctions needed to understand them.
More examples
- The report confounds correlation with causation.
- She confounded his politeness with genuine agreement.
- Confounding revenue with profit makes a business seem healthier than it is.
Forms
confound · confounds · confounded · confounding
Similar words
- confuse
- The more everyday word for mistaking one thing for another.
- conflate
- Emphasizes combining distinct ideas or categories into one.