confound vs puzzle

confound

verb
  • To perplex or puzzle. 

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

  • To stun or amaze. 

  • To make something worse. 

  • To cause to be ashamed; to abash. 

  • To defeat, to frustrate, to thwart. 

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

noun
  • A confounding variable. 

puzzle

verb
  • To perplex, confuse, or mystify; to cause (someone) to be faced with a mystery, without answers or an explanation. 

  • To think long and carefully, in bewilderment. 

  • To make intricate; to entangle. 

noun
  • Anything that is difficult to understand or make sense of. 

  • A riddle. 

  • The state of being puzzled; perplexity. 

  • A game for one or more people that is more or less difficult to work out or complete. 

  • A jigsaw puzzle. 

  • A crossword puzzle. 

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