Conflate vs. Confound: What's the Difference?
Conflate and Confound Definitions
Conflate
To bring together; meld or fuse
"The problems [with the biopic] include ... dates moved around, lovers deleted, many characters conflated into one" (Ty Burr).
Confound
To cause to become confused or perplexed.
Conflate
To combine (two variant texts, for example) into one whole.
Confound
To fail to distinguish; mix up
Don't confound fiction and fact.
Conflate
To fail to distinguish between; confuse. See Usage Note below.
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Confound
To make (something bad) worse
Do not confound the problem by losing your temper.
Conflate
To bring (things) together and fuse (them) into a single entity.
Confound
To cause to be ashamed; abash
An invention that confounded the skeptics.
Conflate
To mix together different elements.
Confound
Used in mild curses
Confound you!.
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Conflate
(by extension) To fail to properly distinguish or keep separate (things); to mistakenly treat (them) as equivalent.
“Bacon was Lord Chancellor of England and the first European to experiment with gunpowder.” — “No, you are conflating Francis Bacon and Roger Bacon.”
Confound
To frustrate or thwart
Trivial demands that confounded the peace talks.
Conflate
Combining elements from multiple versions of the same text.
Confound
(Archaic) To defeat or overthrow (an enemy).
Conflate
(biblical criticism) A conflate text, one which conflates multiple version of a text together.
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Confound
To perplex or puzzle.
Conflate
To blow together; to bring together; to collect; to fuse together; to join or weld; to consolidate.
The State-General, created and conflated by the passionate effort of the whole nation.
Confound
To stun or amaze.
Conflate
To ignore distinctions between, by treating two or more distinguishable objects or ideas as one; to confuse.
Confound
To fail to see the difference; to mix up; to confuse right and wrong.
Conflate
Mix together different elements;
The colors blend well
Confound
To make something worse.
Don't confound the situation by yelling.
Confound
To combine in a confused fashion; to mingle so as to make the parts indistinguishable.
Confound
To cause to be ashamed; to abash.
His actions confounded the skeptics.
Confound
To defeat, to frustrate, to thwart.
Confound
(dated) To damn (a mild oath).
Confound you!
Confound the lady!
Confound
(archaic) To destroy, ruin, or devastate; to bring to ruination.
Confound
(statistics) A confounding variable.
Confound
To mingle and blend, so that different elements can not be distinguished; to confuse.
They who strip not ideas from the marks men use for them, but confound them with words, must have endless dispute.
Let us go down, and there confound their language.
Confound
To mistake for another; to identify falsely.
They [the tinkers] were generally vagrants and pilferers, and were often confounded with the gypsies.
Confound
To throw into confusion or disorder; to perplex; to strike with amazement; to dismay.
The gods confound...The Athenians both within and out that wall.
They trusted in thee and were not confounded.
So spake the Son of God, and Satan stoodA while as mute, confounded what to say.
Confound
To destroy; to ruin; to waste.
One man's lust these many lives confounds.
How couldst thou in a mile confound an hour?
Confound
Be confusing or perplexing to; cause to be unable to think clearly;
These questions confuse even the experts
This question completely threw me
This question befuddled even the teacher
Confound
Mistake one thing for another;
You are confusing me with the other candidate
I mistook her for the secretary
