Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use complement in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Complement means the totality, the full amount or number which completes something. Example: “The complement of blue is orange.”

Examples of complement by meaning

nounThe totality, the full amount or number which completes something.

  • Some 11 members of Somerton council's complement of 15 stepped down on Tuesday.2009 October 30, The Guardian

nounSomething which completes, something which combines with something else to make up a complete whole; loosely, something...

  • It would be too much to imagine that improving stations will alone create a much needed new image in the public eye; a smartly turned out station staff is a very necessary complement to a smart station.1962 October, Brian Haresnape, “Focus on B.R. passenger stations”, in Modern Railways, page 255
  • London's Kings Place, now one year old, established itself as a venue for imaginative programming, a complement to the evergreen Wigmore Hall.2009 December 13, The Guardian

nounThe color which, when mixed with the given color, gives black (for mixing pigments) or white (for mixing light).

  • The complement of blue is orange.

nounGiven two sets, the set containing one set's elements that are not members of the other set (whether a relative...

  • The complement of the odd numbers is the even numbers, relative to the natural numbers.

nounThe numeric complement of a number.

  • The complement of −123 is 123.

nounA nucleotide sequence in which each base is replaced by the complementary base of the given sequence: adenine (A) by...

  • A DNA molecule is formed from two strands, each of which is the complement of the other.

verbTo complete, to bring to perfection, to make whole.

  • We believe your addition will complement the team.

verbTo provide what the partner lacks and lack what the partner provides, thus forming part of a whole.

  • The flavors of the pepper and garlic complement each other, giving a very rich taste in combination.
  • I believe our talents really complement each other.

More sentences with complement

  • The objective complement in "She makes us angry" is the adjective "angry".From the entry objective
  • Only a really fine wine could fully complement Lucía's hand-made pasta.From the entry fine
  • No English adverbs have mandatory complements, and most don't even license optional ones.From the entry license
  • The garden had a harmonious design, with flowers and shrubs complementing each other.From the entry harmonious
  • Computers that use ones' complement arithmetic have two representations for zero, all 0's and all 1's.From the entry ones' complement
  • In a distributive lattice, the set of complemented elements is a sublattice.From the entry distributive lattice
  • In a Boolean lattice, the complement of an atom is a coatom.From the entry coatom
  • In many network protocols, identification is complemented by authentication.From the entry identification
  • Nearly all modern computers use two's complement for integer arithmetic.From the entry two's complement
  • The right homework will reinforce and complement the lesson!From the entry reinforce
  • In the sentence "That is a flying car!", 'that' is the subject and 'flying car' is the subject complement.From the entry subject complement
  • In the sentence "Venezuela declared herself independent of Spain first", 'herself' is the object and 'independent of Spain' is the complement.From the entry object complement
  • In the sentence "That house seems haunted!", 'that house' is the subject and 'haunted' is the subject complement (in this case an adjective).From the entry subject complement
  • If P is a proper prime ideal of a ring and M is the set complement, w.r.t. the ring, of P, then M is a multiplicative subset.From the entry multiplicative subset
  • For fact, for example, the clausal complement describes the content of the fact.2025, Edward A. F. Gibson, “Dependency Locality in Language Processing” (chapter 4), in Syntax: A Cognitive Approach, MIT Press, →DOI…. From the entry clausal
  • In simple words, The XNOR gate is the complement of the XOR gate.2025 August 30, “Logic Gates - Definition, Types, Uses”, in GeeksforGeeks, archived from the original on 11 Sep 2025. From the entry XNOR
  • It wouldn’t be a true Happy Hour without some delicious drinks to complement the Border Style Mex.2020 July 21, Cami Studebaker, “On The Border Livens Up Happy Hour with Bold New Specials”, in RestaurantNews.com, archived from the…. From the entry strawberrita
  • It follows from this definition that in factored expressions, complements are permitted only for the literals.2018, Vlad P. Shmerko, Svetlana N. Yanushkevich, Sergey Edward Lyshevski, Computer Arithmetics for Nanoelectronics, page 333. From the entry factored
  • The human met-ase locus contains granzyme M, proteinase 3, N-elastase, azurocidin, NSP-4 and complement factor D (CFD).2015 November 17, “Granule Associated Serine Proteases of Hematopoietic Cells – An Analysis of Their Appearance and Diversification during…. From the entry azurocidin
  • Amergent music is a generative style developed to complement the innate dynamics or ontology of technoetic environments.2014, Norbert Herber, “Musical Behavior and Amergence in Technoetic and Media Arts”, in Karen Collins, Bill Kapralos, Holly Tessler…. From the entry technoetic
  • There's just something about big data and sailor-cursing that complement each other—like peanut butter and mothereffing jelly.2013 December 3, Megan Garber, “Congratulations, Ohio! You Are the Sweariest State in the Union”, in James Bennet, editor, The Atlantic…. From the entry mothereffing
  • Such endings attached to a Sumerogram are known as phonetic complements.2011, Theo van den Hout, The Elements of Hittite, →ISBN, page 12. From the entry Sumerogram
  • Gerunds and gerund phrases are always nouns, so they are always predicate nominatives when used as complements.2005, Gary Lutz, Diane Stevenson, The Writer's Digest Grammar Desk Reference, page 55. From the entry gerund
  • Do be careful to distinguish progressive-tense verbs from gerunds used as subjective complements.2005, Gary Lutz, Diane Stevenson, The Writer's Digest Grammar Desk Reference, page 55. From the entry gerund
  • Almost any place worth camping in comes equipped with a full complement of night-foraging critters.2005, Don Jacobson, One-Pan Gourmet Fresh Food On The Trail. From the entry minibear
  • In this case the complement clause is interpreted as having the same subject as the main clause.2004, Paul K. Kroeger, Analyzing Syntax: A Lexical-Functional Approach, Cambridge University Press (hardback) (paperback), chapter 5.4, 117. From the entry controller
  • Endless stories about classes, exams, and campus events complemented the everflowing jug of guilesome gossip.2002, Rajeev Prasad, Reinkarmation, page 263. From the entry guilesome
  • Oyster mushrooms are complemented by onions, butter, mild cheeses, fish, chicken, cream sauces, and gentle herbs.1997, Arleen Raines Bessette, Taming the Wild Mushroom: A Culinary Guide to Market Foraging, page 31. From the entry oyster mushroom
  • Her dark, arched eyebrows and soft facial hair complement the membranous leaves behind her.1995 October 26, “Accent on Women's Art Latinas at two...”, in The Denver Post. From the entry facial hair
  • This is an alternative state to heteroecious and complements monoecious and dioecious.1995, R. W. Cruden, R. M. Lloyd, “Embriophytes have equivalent sexual phenotypes and breeding systems: why not a common terminology to…. From the entry homoecious

Meaning of complement

  1. noun The totality, the full amount or number which completes something.
  2. noun The whole working force of a vessel.
  3. noun An angle which, together with a given angle, makes a right angle.

Full definition of complement

Questions about complement in a sentence

How do you use complement in a sentence?
Complement is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The complement of blue is orange.”
What is a short sentence with complement?
“The complement of blue is orange.”
What does complement mean?
Complement means the totality, the full amount or number which completes something.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: complement (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use complement in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/complement. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.