complete
Formscompletes, completing, completed
Formscompletes, completing, completed
Pluralcompletes
- 1To finish; to bring to an end; to reach the end of something.
The crew expects to complete the bridge repairs by spring.
After completing the form, she dropped it in the mailbox.
UsageUsually with an object: complete a form, complete a course. Without an object, finish is more usual.
Similarfinish, end, conclude, accomplish, finalize
Oppositestart (entry), begin, commence
- 2Having all of its parts or members included, with nothing missing or left out; full.
The archive holds a complete record of every city council meeting since 1902.
No complete skeleton of the species has ever been found.
UsageIt can be graded: more complete, most complete, nearly complete.
Similarwhole, entire, total, full
Oppositeincomplete, partial, fragmentary
- 3Finished, ended, or concluded; no longer in progress.
Renovations on the library are now complete.
With the merger complete, the two firms began operating under one name.
UsageUsually after a verb: the work is complete. Before a noun, a complete report usually means whole, not just finished.
Similarfinished, done, completed, ended, concluded
Oppositeunfinished, incomplete, ongoing
Note
The American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897) uses it of a process reaching its end: "the apotheosis of the Celebrity was complete."
- 4Total or utter, used as an intensifier.
The reorganization was a complete disaster from day one.
He felt like a complete stranger in his own hometown.
UsageBefore a noun: a complete disaster, a complete stranger. After a verb, the word means something else.
Similarabsolute, utter, total, outright, downright
Oppositepartial
- 5To make something whole or entire.
Two new hires will complete the research team.
A matching armchair completes the living room set.
Similarperfect
Note
Here the Latin root shows through. Compleō meant "I fill up," from com- and pleō, "I fill," the verb also behind replete and deplete. To complete something in this sense is to supply the piece that fills it out, rather than to bring work to an end as in the "finish" meaning.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Complete ultimately derives from Latin compleō. en.wiktionary.org
- Compleō means 'I fill up' and consists of com- and pleō. en.wiktionary.org
- Pleō supplies the meaning 'fill'. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 6A survey that a respondent has filled out in full; one finished questionnaire counted as a unit.
The research firm charges its clients by the complete.
After a week in the field, the study had logged only ninety completes.
Note
Market researchers count their fieldwork in these units. A complete is a survey a respondent has finished, as opposed to a partial or abandoned one. The noun takes a plural, completes, and turns up in talk of rates and targets: Quirk's Marketing Research Review in 1994 speaks of "two completes an hour."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Wiktionary dates the cited occurrence in Quirk's Marketing Research Review, volume 8, to 1994. en.wiktionary.org
- The cited quotation contains the exact wording “two completes an hour.” en.wiktionary.org
- 7Belonging to a given complexity class while every other problem in the class can be reduced to it, usually in polynomial time or logarithmic space.
- 8In mathematics, describing a structure, such as a metric space, ordered set, ring, or category, in which every relevant limit or bound exists within it.
- 9Describing a logical system in which every semantically valid well-formed formula is provable.
- 10Describing an ordered set in which every nonempty subset that has a lower bound has a greatest lower bound.
- 11Describing a category in which all small limits exist.
- 12In poker, to match the big blind from the small-blind position when no one has yet raised the pot.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English compleet, borrowed from Old French complet or Latin completus, the past participle of compleō ('I fill up, I complete'), from com- plus pleō ('I fill'). It traces back to the Proto-Indo-European root *pleh₁- ('to fill'), which also gives us English 'full'.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts
- English complete derives from Middle English compleet. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English borrowed the word from Old French complet or Latin completus. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin completus is the past participle of compleō. en.wiktionary.org
- Compleō means 'I fill up, I complete'. en.wiktionary.org
- Compleō consists of com- plus pleō, with pleō meaning 'fill'. en.wiktionary.org
- The word ultimately derives from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁-, meaning 'to fill'. en.wiktionary.org
- English full derives from the same Proto-Indo-European root. en.wiktionary.org