# complicate

Pronunciation: say "KOM-pli-kayt" US /ˈkɑmplɪkeɪt/, UK /ˈkɒmplɪkeɪt/

## Verb

1. To make something more complex, intricate, or difficult to deal with.
   - Simple: To make something harder to do or understand.
   - _New regulations only complicate an already cumbersome approval process._
   - _Introducing a third investor complicated the negotiations considerably._
2. To draw a person or thing into a tangled, convoluted affair.
   - Simple: To pull someone into a confusing or messy situation.
   - _The forged documents complicated several executives in the fraud investigation._
   - _Reporters worried the leak would complicate the mayor in a scandal she knew nothing about._

## Adjective

Pronunciation: say "KOM-pli-kuht" US /ˈkɑmplɪkət/, UK /ˈkɒmplɪkət/

3. Complex or intricate; made up of many interconnected parts. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Having many parts joined together, so it is not simple.
   - _The poet traced a complicate web of fate binding the doomed lovers._
   - _The complicate machinery of the court baffled every newcomer._
4. Twined or wound together so the parts are interwoven; intertwined. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Twisted and tangled together, with parts woven into each other.
   - _The roots ran complicate beneath the orchard floor._
   - _Threads of gold lay complicate among the dark wool._

## Origin

First recorded in the early 17th century, it was borrowed from Latin complicātus, the past participle of complicō ("to fold together"), from con- ("together") plus plicō ("to fold, weave, knit"); compare complex.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/complicate (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).