confound vs explain

confound

verb
  • To cause to be ashamed; to abash. 

  • To combine in a confused fashion; to mingle so as to make the parts indistinguishable. 

  • To stun or amaze. 

  • To make something worse. 

  • To defeat, to frustrate, to thwart. 

  • To fail to see the difference; to mix up; to confuse right and wrong. 

  • To perplex or puzzle. 

noun
  • A confounding variable. 

explain

verb
  • To give a valid excuse for past behavior. 

  • To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of. 

  • To make something plain or intelligible. 

How often have the words confound and explain occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )