COMPLEX | Meaning, Definition In Cambridge English Dictionary

Meaning of complex in English complexadjective uk /ˈkɒm.pleks/ /kəmˈpleks/ us /kɑːmˈpleks/ /ˈkɑːm.pleks/ Add to word list Add to word list B2 involving a lot of different but related parts: a complex molecule/carbohydrate a complex network of roads a complex procedure The company has a complex organizational structure. B2 difficult to understand or find an answer to because of having many different parts: It's a very complex issue to which there is no straightforward answer. The film's plot was so complex that I couldn't follow it. not easy to deal with or understand

• difficultIt's very difficult to find a job in this city.
• hardThe exam was really hard.
• complicatedThe instructions were so complicated I just couldn't follow them.
• complexDesigning a house is a complex process.
• trickyIt's quite tricky getting the puzzle pieces to fit together.

See more results »

• I find it hard to get my mind round such complex issues.
• The structure of this protein is particularly complex.
• It is a simple melody with complex harmonies.
• The writer has used several complex grammatical constructions.
• She always manages to cut through the complex theory and get at the facts.

Complexity

• advanced
• all-singing
• baroque
• baroquely
• be more to something than meets the eye idiom
• finicky
• fractally
• high-tech
• indirectly
• insolubility
• non-basic
• onerousness
• ornate
• ornately
• over-elaborate
• tortuous
• tortuously
• tortuousness
• twisty
• ultra-sophisticated

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Difficult to understand complexnoun [ C ] uk /ˈkɒm.pleks/ us /ˈkɑːm.pleks/

complex noun [C] (BUILDING)

C1 a large building with various connected rooms or a related group of buildings: a shopping/sports and leisure complexUS They live in a large apartment complex.

• They're planning to develop the whole site into a shopping complex.
• The hotel complex was a honeycomb of rooms and courtyards .
• The Council plans to knock the library down and replace it with a hotel complex.
• The office complex has an on-site nursery.
• They're building a new sports complex on the waterside.

Public buildings

• agora
• art gallery
• basilica
• bathhouse
• centre
• consulate
• fellowship hall
• foundation stone
• gallery
• guildhall
• living museum
• museum
• office building
• public library
• reference library
• sports hall
• teardown
• thermal bath
• town hall
• ziggurat

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complex noun [C] (BAD FEELING)

C2 a particular anxiety or unconscious fear that a person has, especially as a result of an unpleasant experience that they have had in the past or because they have a low opinion of their own worth: an inferiority complex I think he's got a complex about being bald. Don't go on about her weight - you'll give her a complex! Mental illnesses

• ad
• add
• adjustment disorder
• age-associated memory impairment
• anhedonia
• exhibitionistically
• fabricated or induced illness
• factitious disorder
• factitious disorder imposed on another
• factitious disorder imposed on self
• inferiority complex
• manic depressive
• neurosis
• obsessively
• OCD
• orthorexia
• panic disorder
• paramnesia
• psychosomatic
• senile

See more results » (Definition of complex from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

complex | American Dictionary

complexadjective us /kəmˈpleks, ˈkɑm·pleks/ Add to word list Add to word list having many parts related to each other in ways that may be difficult to understand: a complex surgical procedure The question of who is legally responsible is a complex issue.

complexity

noun [ C/U ] us /kəmˈplek·sɪ·t̬i/ [ U ] You must understand the variety and complexity of tasks assigned to the police. complexnoun [ C ] us /ˈkɑm·pleks/

complex noun [C] (BUILDING)

a group of buildings that are related, or a large building having different parts: an apartment complex for elderly people

complex noun [C] (ATTITUDES)

a group of attitudes and feelings that influence a person’s behavior, often in a negative way: an inferiority complex (Definition of complex from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of complex

complex This exchangeable end effector permits the robot to perform more complex duties. From the Cambridge English Corpus These are now seen to be only a small element of a complex system driven by concerns other than the purely cognitive. From the Cambridge English Corpus Personhood is the complex of physical, spiritual, psychological and social aspects that make up an individual life. From the Cambridge English Corpus It is not clear how dynamical systems serve as a psychological explanation as opposed to a complex description of behavior. From the Cambridge English Corpus The government, however, has a strong steering role with complex regulations affecting virtually every aspect of the health system. From the Cambridge English Corpus The regulations for coverage of nonexcluded medical aids are complex and therefore are only briefly described. From the Cambridge English Corpus It appears that endogenous and/or exogenous serotonin in preimplantation embryos could be involved in complex autocrine/paracrine regulations of embryo development and embryo-maternal interactions. From the Cambridge English Corpus The authors argue that the olfactory-hippocampal-dorsal cortex circuit was needed to create complex olfactory-based representations of space. From the Cambridge English Corpus This makes it difficult to implement the idea that associations apply to increasingly complex representations. From the Cambridge English Corpus According to this hypothesis, neither random errors nor morphologically and syntactically more complex structures would be expected. From the Cambridge English Corpus We did not attempt to estimate the spatiotemporal structure of the receptive fields of complex cells. From the Cambridge English Corpus The final chapter gives an inspiring overview of the complex problems surrounding market and non-market economic organisation. From the Cambridge English Corpus This conflicting opinion, together with complex cultural and socioeconomic issues surrounding wetlands, has given rise to a plethora of views on how to develop wetlands. From the Cambridge English Corpus The two membranes join at the nuclear pore membrane, which surrounds the nuclear pore complexes. From the Cambridge English Corpus The rules for organizing frameworks and assigning surfaces to them are complex and not fully-understood. From the Cambridge English Corpus These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with complex

complex

These are words often used in combination with complex.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

athletic complexIn 2005, a new three story athletic complex was completed which contains an indoor practice field, weight room, and locker room, and coach offices. From Wikipedia This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.   cinema complexThe store includes fashion boutiques, jewellery shops, speciality lifestyle stores, a bowling alley and a cinema complex. From Wikipedia This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.   entire complexIt also makes it trivially easy for pattern matching rules to skip over an entire complex token with a single token wild-card pattern element. From the Cambridge English Corpus   These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors. See all collocations with complex What is the pronunciation of complex?

Translations of complex

in Chinese (Traditional) 由許多相關的不同部分組成的, 構造複雜的, 難懂的，費解的… See more in Chinese (Simplified) 由许多相关的不同部分组成的, 构造复杂的, 难懂的，费解的… See more in Spanish complejo, complicado/ada [masculine-feminine], complejo/eja [masculine-feminine]… See more in Portuguese complexo, complexo/-xa [masculine-feminine], complexo [masculine]… See more in Marathi in Japanese in Turkish in French in Catalan in Dutch in Tamil in Hindi in Gujarati in Danish in Swedish in Malay in German in Norwegian in Urdu in Ukrainian in Telugu in Bengali in Czech in Indonesian in Thai in Vietnamese in Polish in Korean in Italian गुंतागुंतीचे, क्लिष्ट, जटील… See more 複雑な, 複雑（ふくざつ）な, 総合（そうごう）ビル… See more karmaşık, anlaşılması güç, kafa karıştıran… See more complexe, complexe [masculine], ensemble… See more complex… See more ingewikkeld, complex… See more பல்வேறு ஆனால் தொடர்புடைய பாகங்கள் நிறைய சம்பந்தப்பட்ட, பல வேறுபட்ட பகுதிகளைக் கொண்டிருப்பதால் புரிந்துகொள்வது அல்லது பதிலைக் கண்டுபிடிப்பது கடினம், பல்வேறு இணைக்கப்பட்ட அறைகள் அல்லது தொடர்புடைய கட்டிடங்களின் குழுவைக் கொண்ட ஒரு பெரிய கட்டிடம்… See more जटिल, भिन्न किंतु संबंधित भागों का सम्मिलन, कई भिन्न भागों के होने के कारण जिसे समझना या उत्तर खोजना कठिन हो… See more સંયોજન, વિવિધ પરંતુ સંબંધિત ભાગોનું મિશ્રણ, જટિલ… See more kompliceret, sammensat, kompleks… See more sammansatt, komplicerad, invecklad… See more kompleks, rumi… See more zusammengesetzt, kompliziert, der Komplex… See more sammensatt, kompleks, komplisert… See more پیچیدہ, پیچ در پیچ, الجھاوے والا… See more складний, комплексний, комплекс… See more సంక్లిష్టమైన, చాలా వేరువేరు సంబంధిత భాగాలు కలిగి ఉన్న, ఎక్కువ వేర్వేరు భాగాలుండడం వల్ల అర్థం చేసుకోవడానికి/సమాధానమివ్వడానికి కష్టమైన… See more জটিল, পরস্পর সম্পর্কিত বিভিন্ন অংশ জড়িয়ে, আলাদা আলাদা অংশ থাকায় বুঝে ওঠা বা উত্তর খুঁজে পাওয়া কঠিন… See more složený, složitý, komplex… See more gabungan, rumit, kompleks… See more ซับซ้อน, ยาก, สิ่งที่สลับซับซ้อน… See more phức tạp, rắc rối, khu liên hợp… See more złożony, kompleks, skomplikowany… See more 단지… See more complesso… See more Need a translator?

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completionism completionist completism completist complex complex adaptive system complex carbohydrate complex equation complex formula {{#randomImageQuizHook.filename}} {{#randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes Try a quiz now {{/randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{^randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{/randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{/randomImageQuizHook.filename}}

More meanings of complex

• complex fraction
• complex number
• inferiority complex
• non-complex
• complex word
• father complex
• guilt complex

See all meanings

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goal

UK /ɡəʊl/ US /ɡoʊl/

to be the player who tries to prevent the other team from scoring goals

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• English   Adjective
  • Noun 
    • complex (BUILDING)
    • complex (BAD FEELING)
• American   
  • Adjective 
    • complex
  • Noun 
    • complexity
  • Noun 
    • complex (BUILDING)
    • complex (ATTITUDES)
• Examples
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