Jumbled

Jumbled is an adjective meaning mixed up, disordered, or confused. It can describe physical matter that is in a disorganized state, such as a jumbled pile of papers, or abstract states such as jumbled thoughts or a jumbled plan. As a past participle, jumbled indicates that something has been mixed or tangled together, as in “the letters were jumbled.”

The word derives from the verb jumble, which conveys the act of mixing things together in a haphazard way. The sense of disorder is central to its meaning in English, and the term has been in use since the Middle Ages.

In puzzles and games, jumbled commonly refers to scrambled letters, where the challenge is to rearrange the letters to recover the original word. The related noun jumble refers to a confused collection or mixture. In everyday language, jumbled can describe confused or garbled speech or writing, such as a jumbled sentence or a jumbled explanation.

Synonyms include muddled, garbled, disordered, and tangled; antonyms include orderly and organized.