quizzical

1. 1.

   playfully vexing (especially by ridicule)

   “his face wore a somewhat quizzical almost impertinent air”

   Synonymsmockingteasing

   Similarplayful
2. 2.

   perplexed (as if being expected to know something that you do not know)

   “he had a quizzical expression”

   Synonymsquestioning

   Similarperplexed

Questions about quizzical

What does quizzical mean?

quizzical means "playfully vexing (especially by ridicule)". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in quizzical?

quizzical has 3 syllables: quiz-zi-cal. The stress falls on "quiz". In IPA it is /ˈkwɪzəkəl/.

What is another word for quizzical?

Close synonyms include mocking, teasing, questioning. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is quizzical a common word?

quizzical is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.