muddlement

plural muddlements

1. countableuncountableThe state of being muddled or the act of muddling; confusion; disorganization.

   The Opposition was charging the Government with muddlement and with mismanagement.

   1967, New Zealand. Parliament. House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, page 1328

   4 more examples

   I am lost in my own muddlement; and whereabouts the right place is, and how I am to get myself back into it, as I am a living sinner is more than I know!

   1857, Wilkie Collins, The Dead Secret - Volume 2, page 216

   You may heap muddlement upon muddlement; and, with a free people, though much mischief is done and much good prevented, still they work on steadily , each man in his private capacity doing something to retrieve the effects of bad or of indolent government.

   1859, Arthur Helps, Friends in Council - Volume 4, page 181

   I have stated that some of our protestant writers are muddled. I begin with one who is muddlement and nothing else; muddlement not merely by nature but by choice; muddlement as a religion, a philosophy, and an ethical code.

   1927, Money Writes!, page 119

   At best, words are fumbled but somewhat redeemed with an accepted frustration and shrugs, and at worst, phrases, punctuated with grimaced muddlements, simply fail.

   2016, Joseph Michael Sepesy, Word Dances III: Celebration