Complex (noun) Definition, Meaning & Examples

adjective
  1. composed of many interconnected parts; compound; composite: a complex highway system.
  2. characterized by a very complicated or involved arrangement of parts, units, etc.: complex machinery.
  3. so complicated or intricate as to be hard to understand or deal with: a complex problem.
  4. Grammar.
    • (of a word) consisting of two parts, at least one of which is a bound form, as childish, which consists of the word child and the bound form -ish.
    • complex sentence.
  5. pertaining to or using complex numbers: complex methods; complex vector space.
noun
  1. an intricate or complicated association or assemblage of related things, parts, units, etc.: the entire complex of our educational system; an apartment complex.
  2. a system of interrelated, emotion-charged ideas, feelings, memories, and impulses that is usually repressed and that gives rise to abnormal or pathological behavior.
  3. a fixed idea; an obsessive notion.
  4. Mathematics.
    • an arbitrary set of elements of a group.
    • a collection of simplexes having specified properties.
  5. a compound in which independently existing molecules or ions of a nonmetal (complexing agent ) form coordinate bonds with a metal atom or ion.
  6. an entity composed of molecules in which the constituents maintain much of their chemical identity: receptor-hormone complex, enzyme-substrate complex.
verb (used with object)
  1. to form a complex with.
verb (used without object)
  1. to form a complex.
adjective
  1. made up of various interconnected parts; composite
  2. (of thoughts, writing, etc) intricate or involved
  3. grammar
    • (of a word) containing at least one bound form
    • (of a noun phrase) containing both a lexical noun and an embedded clause, as for example the italicized parts of the following sentence: I didn't know the man who served me
    • (of a sentence) formed by subordination of one clause to another
  4. of or involving one or more complex numbers
noun
  1. a whole made up of interconnected or related parts
  2. a group of emotional ideas or impulses that have been banished from the conscious mind but that continue to influence a person's behaviour
  3. an obsession or excessive fear
  4. a chemical compound in which molecules, groups, or ions are attached to a central metal atom, esp a transition metal atom, by coordinate bonds
  5. any chemical compound in which one molecule is linked to another by a coordinate bond
Complex (noun) Definition, Meaning & Examples

More Definitions