complicity
Americannoun
noun
-
the fact or condition of being an accomplice, esp in a criminal act
-
a less common word for complexity
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of complicity
1650–60; < Late Latin complic-, stem of complex complice + -ity
Explanation
Complicity is involvement in a wrongful act — like when you drove your newly-turned-vegetarian friend to a fast food joint so that she could scarf down a hamburger. Complicity refers to the act of helping someone else behave inappropriately or illegally. If you find yourself accused of complicity, it's often helpful to show that you were unaware of the other person's intentions. In the case of the trip to the fast food restaurant, that's going to be hard to prove. You'll probably be scorned for being an accomplice, or someone who is complicit, in your friend's shameful act.
Vocabulary lists containing complicity
Animal Farm
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The Things They Carried
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Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam
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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.
Complicity is defined as a person or entity having engaged in actions whose foreseeable results may have contributed to genocide, but without having personally intended to commit genocide.
From BBC • Jul. 3, 2025
Regardless, the message of his fate is clear: Complicity will not save you.
From Slate • Feb. 16, 2025
Complicity, chaos, a sense of context: This is what, at its sharpest, criticism means to evoke.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 13, 2022
"Achord's compatriots do not see, or refuse to acknowledge," how similar his beliefs are to their own, agreed Jemar Tisby, author of "The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church's Complicity in Racism."
From Salon • Dec. 2, 2022
I wonder what you’ll name my sin: Complicity?
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
Definitions 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.
