adj.
- consisting of many different and connected parts.
- not easy to understand; complicated.
- Mathematics (of a number) containing both a real and an imaginary part.
n.
- an interlinked system; a network.
▸a group of similar buildings or facilities on the same site.
- Psychoanalysis a related group of repressed or partly repressed emotionally significant ideas which lead to abnormal mental states or behaviour.
▸informal a feeling of disproportionate anxiety about something.
- Chemistry an ion or molecule in which one or more groups are linked to a metal atom by coordinate bonds.
v.
Chemistry make (an atom or compound) form a complex with another.
Derivative
- complexation n. (Chemistry ).
- complexity n.
(pl. complexities)
. - complexly adv.
Etymology
C17 (as n.): from L. complexus, from complectere ‘embrace, comprise’, later assoc. with complexus ‘plaited’; the adjective is partly via Fr. complexe.
