Q:

What is the word that means a person has confused two terms with one another?

Is there a better verb than "confuse" in this passage: 

Joe has confused the terms A, B, and C. When describing B he used the attributes of A. Also, Joe used attributes of C when discussing A.

A:

Also, you may use 'conflate'. Conflate has a much better sense here than 'confuse' imo. Even though 'conflate' is defined as 'confuse' it has a secondary meaning of 'to bring together, to fuse'. The first meaning doesn't have a negative connotation, but the the second meaning of 'confusion' does (i.e. that you are conflating in error things that should not be conflated).

