complexity

[ kuhm-plek-si-tee ]

noun

, plural com·plex·i·ties

1. the state or quality of being complex; intricacy:

   the complexity of urban life.

2. something complex:

   the complexities of foreign policy.

complexity

/ kəmˈplɛksɪtɪ /

noun

1. the state or quality of being intricate or complex
2. something intricate or complex; complication

Other Words From

• inter·com·plexi·ty noun plural intercomplexities
• over·com·plexi·ty noun
• super·com·plexi·ty noun plural supercomplexities

Word History and Origins

Origin of complexity¹

First recorded in 1715–25; complex + -ity

Example Sentences

However, this approach could only go so far, because the complexity of searching for the right matrices grows exponentially as the matrices get bigger.

From Quanta Magazine

With just two particles and free from the complexities of a nucleus, positronium is appealingly simple.

From Science News

The complexity of our global economy and the gravity of the risks and inequities we face require business—and therefore business journalism—to be more progressive, inclusive, and interested in solving problems.

From Quartz

Don’t let the complexity of data analysis and analytics scare you into thinking that they’re too hard to understand and analyze.

From Search Engine Watch

Part of the complexity in enhancing memory is that the hippocampus isn’t just a single uniform structure.

From Singularity Hub 

His most elaborate camera maneuvers seemed almost diabolical in their complexity.

From The Daily Beast

We had a very thin book that we had to create characters with some different complexity.

From The Daily Beast

Sex, with its myths, confronts us with the complexity of our behaviors and our beliefs.

From The Daily Beast

Yeah, one thing that John Shea said struck me: "Narratives close off the complexity of reality."

From The Daily Beast

But Poitras and her colleagues have little interest in that sort of shades of gray complexity.

From The Daily Beast

Here opens up, very evidently, a perfect labyrinth of complexity.

From Project Gutenberg

It is difficult, however, to trace the mode in which they operate on a substance of such complexity as the soil.

From Project Gutenberg

Her father was one, and he was a man who had scarcely been educated, and was certainly devoid of any complexity of character.

From Project Gutenberg

You can hardly imagine a being whose interior existence was more devoid of complexity and of mixed motives than was Coronado's.

From Project Gutenberg

Its complexity causes us to look around on all sides; apparently we have reason to fear sudden happenings.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• complication
• intricacy
• ramification