complementary
Syllables: com·ple·men·ta·ry/ˌkɒmplɪˈmɛnt(ə)ɹi/US/ˌkɑmplɪˈmɛnt(ə)ɹi/
complementary adjective: acting as a complement; making up a whole with something else.
Adjective
complementary (comparative more complementary, superlative most complementary)
- Acting as a complement; making up a whole with something else.
- I'll provide you with some complementary notes to help you study.
- The two business partners had complementary abilities: one had excellent people skills, while the other had a head for figures.
- Of the specific pairings of the bases in DNA and RNA.
- Pertaining to pairs of properties in quantum mechanics that are inversely related to each other, such as speed and position, or energy and time. (See also Heisenberg uncertainty principle.)
Noun
complementary (plural complementaries)
- A complementary colour.
- One skilled in compliments.
- the hands of the most skilful and cunning complementaries alive1600 (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Cynthias Reuels, or The Fountayne of Selfe-Loue. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby...
- An angle which adds with another to equal ninety degrees.
complementary meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Telugu and Malayalam
complementary in Tamil
- குறைநிரப்பு, நிறைவு உண்டாக்கும், நிரப்புகின்ற, நிரப்பும், எதிர் நிரப்பு, ஈடுசெய்தல்
complementary in Urdu
- تکمیلی
complementary in Telugu
- పరిపూరకరమైనది, పరిపూరకరమైన
complementary in Malayalam
- harmonious, compatible, corresponding
- പൂരക, പൂരണ, പരിപൂരകമായ, അനുപൂരക, യോജിപ്പുള്ള, ചേർച്ചയുള്ള
More languagesFewer languages
- complementary in Kannada
- ಅರಕೆಯಾಗಿರುವುದನ್ನು ತುಂಬುವ, ಅಗತ್ಯವಾದುದನ್ನು ಪೂರೈಸುವ
- complementary in Punjabi
- ਸੰਪੂਰਕ
- complementary in Sanskrit
- सम्पूरक sampūraka
- complementary in Indonesian
- komplementer
Examples of complementary in a sentence
- Angle A is 40°, and its complementary angle, B, is 50°.
- Muddy colors are often the result of mixing complementary colors—those opposite each other on the color wheel.
- The annual revista . . . deserves the most golden, the most enameled, the most complementary adjectives.
Forms of complementary
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more complementary |
| superlative | most complementary |
| Noun | |
| plural | complementaries |
Origin of complementary
From complement + -ary. Piecewise doublet of complimentary.
Words formed from complementary
- anticomplementary
- complementarily
- complementariness
- complementarity
- enantiocomplementary
- intercomplementary
- noncomplementary
- complementary allophone
- complementary angle
- complementary angles
- complementary antonym
- complementary colour
- color
- complementary distribution
- complementary DNA
- complementary function
- complementary good
- complementary medicine
- complementary nondeterministic polynomial
- complementary region
- complementary studies
Phrases with complementary
Words that rhyme with complementary
Questions about complementary
- What does complementary mean?
- Complementary means acting as a complement; making up a whole with something else.
- What is complementary in Tamil?
- Complementary in Tamil is குறைநிரப்பு, நிறைவு உண்டாக்கும், நிரப்புகின்ற. See Complementary meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is complementary?
- Complementary can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce complementary?
- Complementary is pronounced /ˌkɒmplɪˈmɛnt(ə)ɹi/ (UK).
Words near complementary in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: complementary (page history and authors); complementary (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); complementary (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); complementary (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); complementary (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); complementary (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); complementary (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); सम्पूरक (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-complementary.wav.
Cite this entry: “complementary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/complementary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.