- past tense form of complicate.
- past participle of complicate.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of complicated
First recorded in 1640–50; complicate + -ed 2
Explanation
When things get complicated, they are no longer simple and straightforward. If you are asked a question that would require a long, detailed answer, you might just say, "It's complicated." The word complicated came about in the 1640's to mean "tangled" or "difficult to unravel." This makes sense, considering it came from the Latin verb complicāre, meaning "to fold together." Consider that something with many folds is more complicated than something flat. Novelist Robert Ludlum said, "Life is extremely complicated," but Confucius long ago suggested that "Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." Just having those two opposing viewpoints indicates how complicated life can be.
Vocabulary lists containing complicated
Schooled
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"Sorry, Wrong Number," Vocabulary from the play
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Excerpts from "To Kill a Mockingbird"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They handle the most complicated pieces, although they gradually are being replaced by locals, the managers said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2026
Restricting an analysis to people who develop dementia can create misleading relationships between obesity and mortality, even when the underlying connection is more complicated.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 11, 2026
"This is an extraordinarily difficult and complicated conflict," he wrote on X, adding the US was "approaching these discussions with determination and realism."
From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2026
However, the long-term data also revealed a more complicated relationship with temperature.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 9, 2026
The reasons for the rise of abolition—the movement to end slavery—in the Northern states are complicated.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
