Word.ws English Dictionary

complicate

Syllables: com·pli·cate/ˈkɒmplɪkeɪt/US/ˈkɑmplɪkeɪt/

complicate verb: to make complex; to modify so as to make something intricate or difficult.

Verb

complicate (third-person singular simple present complicates, present participle complicating, simple past and past participle complicated)

  1. (transitive) To make complex; to modify so as to make something intricate or difficult.
    • Let us, however, put aside for the moment the mendacities and forgeries which complicate the question of Lucifer, and let us approach Palladism from an altogether different side.1896, Arthur Edward Waite, “Chapter 14”, in Devil-Worship in France, or the Question of Lucifer
  2. (transitive) To involve in a convoluted matter.
    • Don't complicate yourself in issues that are beyond the scope of your understanding.
    • John has been complicated in the affair by new tapes that surfaced.
  3. (transitive) To coexist with (another disease) creating a complication.
    • Masked or larvate malaria, like pernicious malaria, needs complete overhauling. Nearly every disease in the category has been confounded with malaria and classed as larvate. This heterogeneous group has been expanded to embrace diseases unrelated to malaria, diseases complicating malaria, and...1909, William Heiskell Deaderick, A Practical Study of Malaria, page 232

Adjective

UK/ˈkɒmplɪkət/

complicate (comparative more complicate, superlative most complicate)

  1. (obsolete) Intertwined.
  2. (archaic, poetic) Complex, complicated.
    • How poor ? how rich ? how abject ? how auguſt ? ¶ How complicat ? how wonderful is Man ?1742, [Edward Young], “Night the First”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley […], →OCLC, page 5, lines 67–68

complicate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

complicate in Hindi

to complicate, muddle, make difficult
उलझाना uljhānā

complicate in Tamil

குழப்பமான, கடினமான நிலை

complicate in Urdu

مشکل بنانا, الجھانا

complicate in Bengali

জটিল করা
More languagesFewer languages
complicate in Malayalam
കുഴക്കുക kuḻakkuka
complicate in Kannada
ಸಂಕೀರ್ಣಗೊಳಿಸು, ಜಟಿಲವಾಗಿಸು, ಗೋಜುಮಾಡು, ಗೊಂದಲಗೊಳಿಸು
complicate in Arabic
تَعَقَّدَ taʕaqqada, عَقَّدَ ʕaqqada
complicate in Vietnamese
làm phức tạp

Examples of complicate in a sentence

  • Over years, that difference would grow, complicating calculations between spacecraft and a lunar base.
  • If the voice coming out of my body is legibly male, it complicates my presence.
  • Unfortunately, the inherent unobservability of these variables complicates their use in practice.

All 31 example sentences with complicate

Synonyms of complicate

5 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of complicate

Forms of complicate

Verb
third-person singular presentcomplicates
present participlecomplicating
past participlecomplicated
pastcomplicated
Adjective
comparativemore complicate
superlativemost complicate

Past tense of complicate: complicated

Origin of complicate

First attested in the early 17th century; borrowed from Latin complicātus, perfect passive participle of complicō (“to fold together, fold up”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from con- (“with, together with, in the company of, in connection with, along with, together, and”) + plicō (“to fold, wind, coil”); see plaid, and compare complex. See also Middle English complicate (“involved”).

Words formed from complicate

Questions about complicate

What does complicate mean?
Complicate means to make complex; to modify so as to make something intricate or difficult.
What is complicate in Hindi?
Complicate in Hindi is उलझाना (uljhānā). See Complicate meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is complicate?
Complicate can be a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce complicate?
Complicate is pronounced /ˈkɑmplɪkeɪt/ (US).
What is the past tense of complicate?
The past tense of complicate is complicated.

Words near complicate in the dictionary

  1. compliancy
  2. compliant
  3. compliantly
  4. complicacies
  5. complicacy
  6. complicate
  7. complicate fever
  8. complicated
  9. complicated fracture
  10. complicated fractures
  11. complicateder

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: complicate (page history and authors); उलझाना (Hindi) (page history and authors); complicate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); complicate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); complicate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); കുഴക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); complicate (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Cite this entry: “complicate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/complicate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.