When something is baffling, you cannot understand it, and you cannot explain it either — not even after you sit with it. It is stronger than confusing. A confusing question still gives you a way in; a baffling one leaves you stuck. People use it for mysteries, strange results, and behaviour that does not add up: a baffling error, a baffling silence, It is baffling that she left. The person who cannot work it out is baffled; the thing that causes that feeling is baffling. It is ordinary educated English — newspapers and teachers like it — not slang, and not stiff. Though actually, people sometimes reach for baffling when they only mean surprising; the core idea is still I have no explanation.