- past participle of complicate.
- past tense form 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.
An emotionally complicated dance-pop album about the relationship between power and vulnerability, “Brat” struck a nerve in a weird cultural moment and finally brought Charli the kind of stardom she’d been openly seeking for ages.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026
"Some have funded worthwhile projects. Some have brought genuine benefits. But, taken together, they have made the landscape more complicated, more fragmented and more difficult to navigate."
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
Affordable housing is in high demand due to rising poverty rates, and it’s often a complicated prospect for seniors who earn just enough to get by but not enough to qualify.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 19, 2026
The figure, an area nearly 12 times larger than London, is a conservative estimate in part because haze has complicated satellite verification, said David Gaveau, founder of deforestation monitoring site Nusantara Atlas.
From Barron's ● Oct. 19, 2026
“I don’t know. Embezzlement is a serious crime. It’s complicated, and I don’t understand all the details. I’m a retired French professor, not a lawyer.”
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
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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.
