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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
War Horse
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Pet
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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
Julianne Moore, on the other hand, brings a less polished intricacy to her roles.
From Salon ● May 10, 2026
But the Houthis had developed a network to track American warplanes with observers, optics and infrared sensors whose intricacy U.S. officials didn’t entirely understand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
Her drawings, which come in sets of two or three near-identical shapes, have "a beautiful intricacy to them" and "look like swirling vortexes", he said.
From BBC ● Dec. 9, 2025
They see the nuance of the costumes, the intricacy of the signs.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
Financial advisers learn the intricacies of portfolio design, risk management and tax planning.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 23, 2026
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
The complex intricacies of language manifested on Eimbcke’s first bilingual set.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
Now that Faizah was fencing, she could help my parents understand the intricacies of competitions and explain that making the round of sixteen at an international competition was a huge achievement.
From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
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.
