complex
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkɒm.plɛks/
ipa: /kəmˈplɛks/
enpr: kəmplĕks
enpr: kŏm'plĕks
ipa: /kɑmˈplɛks/
ipa: /kəmˈplɛks/
ipa: /ˈkɑmplɛks/
rhymes: -ɛks
Forms: form: more complex
form: complexer
form: most complex
form: complexest
Etymology: From French complexe, from Latin complexus, past participle of complector (“I entwine, encircle, compass, infold”), from com- (“together”) and plectere (“to weave, braid”). May be analyzed as com- + -plex. See complect. Doublet of complexus.
Senses: examples: text: a complex being; a complex idea
text: The human body is a complex system made up of many layers.
text: Ideas thus made up of several simple ones put together, I call complex; such as beauty, gratitude, a man, an army, the universe.
ref: 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 2, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book I, page 12:
glosses: Made up of multiple parts; composite; not simple.
examples: text: If, when the actual motions of the heavens are calculated in the best possible way, the process is complex and difficult, and if we are discontented at this, nature, and not the astronomer, must be the object of our displeasure.
ref: 1837, William Whewell, “Inductive Epoch of Hipparchus”, in History of the Inductive Sciences, from the Earliest to the Present Times. […], volume I, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […]; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: J. and J. J. Deighton, →OCLC, book III (History of Greek Astronomy), section 2 (Estimate of the Value of the Theory of Eccentrics and Epicycles), page 183:
synonyms: complicated
detailed
difficult
hard
intricate
involved
tough
antonyms: word: basic
word: easy
word: simple
word: simplex
word: straightforward
word: challenging
word: complex
word: difficult
word: esoteric
word: hard
word: tough
word: tricky
word: uneath
glosses: Not simple, easy, or straightforward; complicated.
examples: text: complex number
text: function of a complex variable
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: Having the form a + bi, where a and b are real numbers and i is (by definition) the imaginary square root of −1.
raw_tags: of a number
examples: text: complex function
topics: mathematical-analysis
mathematics
sciences
glosses: Whose range is a subset of the complex numbers.
raw_tags: of a function
examples: text: complex polynomial
text: complex algebraic variety
topics: algebra
mathematics
sciences
glosses: Whose coefficients are complex numbers; defined over the field of complex numbers.
topics: geometry
mathematics
sciences
glosses: A curve, polygon or other figure that crosses or intersects itself.
Synonyms: word: complex
word: complexed
word: complicate
word: complicated
word: convoluted
word: Gordian
word: involute
word: intricate
word: involutional
word: involved
word: knotty
word: labyrinthal
word: labyrinthine
word: manifold
Hypernyms: word: detailed
word: difficult
Hyponyms: word: confusing
word: out of one's depth
word: over one's head
word: overdesigned
word: Pynchonesque
Derived terms: bicomplex
complex analysis
complex compound
complex conjugate
complex conjugate root theorem
complex conjugation
complex-differentiable
complex fraction
complex function
complex geometry
complexification
complexified
complexify
complexifying
complexin
complex ion
complexity
complex line
complexly
complex measure
complexness
complex number
complexologist
complexology
complexome
complex plane
complex post-traumatic stress disorder
complex projective line
complex question
complex regional pain syndrome
complex sentence
complex transitive
complextro
complex volcano
decomplex
decomplexification
decomplexified
decomplexify
decomplexifying
hypercomplex
incomplex
megacomplex
multicomplex
multiplex
neotenic complex syndrome
noncomplex
overcomplex
paracomplex
pseudocomplex
split-complex number
supercomplex
surcomplex
tricomplex
ultracomplex
uncomplex
Related terms: word: complexion
topics: mathematics
sciences
word: symplectic
word: complexity
word: complication