Adjective: complex
Comparison Forms
Synthetic
Perifrastic
| Comparative | more complex |
| Superlative | most complex |
Sample Sentences
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a complex being; a complex idea
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The human body is a complex system made up of many layers.
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Ideas thus made up of several simple ones put together, I call complex; such as beauty, gratitude, a man, an army, the universe. [1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 2, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book I, page 12:]
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If, when the actual motions of the heavens are calculated in the best possible way, the process is complex and difficult, and if we are discontented at this, nature, and not the astronomer, must be the object of our displeasure. [1837, William Whewell, “Inductive Epoch of Hipparchus”, in History of the Inductive Sciences, from the Earliest to the Present Times. […], volume I, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […]; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: J. and J. J. Deighton, →OCLC, book III (History of Greek Astronomy), section 2 (Estimate of the Value of the Theory of Eccentrics and Epicycles), page 183:]
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complex number
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function of a complex variable
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complex function
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complex polynomial
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complex algebraic variety
Adjectives inflected like complex
shining,
zealous,
nervous,
complex,
uncertain,
important,
conceited,
behind,
illegal,
honest,
dangerous,
Etymology
From French complexe, from Latin complexus, past participle of complector (“to entwine, encircle, compass, infold”), from com- (“together”) and plectō (“to weave, braid”). May be analyzed as com- + -plex. See complect. Doublet of complexus. See: French Adjectives '
complexe'.