Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of intricacy
First recorded in 1595–1605; intric(ate) + -acy
Explanation
The noun intricacy means a quality of being complex or elaborately detailed. You could compliment the intricacy of your friend's complicated hairdo. A delicate piece of jewelry, twisted with decorative strands of silver, can be admired for its intricacy, and an overly complex piece of legislation might be criticized for its intricacy. You could also talk about the intricacy of the universe, or the intricacy of the human body. Intricacy comes from the Latin root word intricatus, which means "entangled."
Vocabulary lists containing intricacy
Power Suffix: -acy
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War Horse
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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.
See Examples For:
The hand-spun yarn dyed in natural colours is woven on handlooms, packing in between 300 and several thousand knots per square inch, depending on the intricacy of the design.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
The intricacy with which Whitehead details the planning and execution of this caper marks him as a top-tier researcher — he’s drawn on many primary sources to ground this work of fiction in historical fact.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
Enough of the intricacy and the controversy, anyway.
From BBC ● May 26, 2026
To her right stood Brandon Ross, whose searing yet disarmingly tender electric guitar tones built like waves, exploded like starbursts or sketched lines of staggering intricacy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026
But before the grandeur and intricacy of Nature, he was, like Ptolemy and Kepler, exhilarated as well as disarmingly modest.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Tanden can reflexively rattle off the particularities of housing protocols I couldn’t begin to decode; she titters with satisfaction upon recounting the intricacies of a long-discarded Australian cap-and-trade proposal.
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026
"This work opens a new direction to explore further the intricacies of the connection between the supermassive black holes trillions of miles from where we are to how we came to be here."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
Anyway, having to master the intricacies of Amalfi’s HMI is the kind of problem one dreams of having.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
The complex intricacies of language manifested on Eimbcke’s first bilingual set.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
As Pearl learned more about her new hometown, Moody began to learn more about Mia’s art, and the intricacies and vagaries of the Warren family finances.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
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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.
