COMPLEX


Meaning of COMPLEX in English

— complexly , adv. — complexness , n.

adj. , v. /keuhm pleks", kom"pleks/ ; n. /kom"pleks/ , adj.

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. Gram.

a. (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.

b. See complex sentence .

5. Math. pertaining to or using complex numbers: complex methods; complex vector space.

n.

6. an intricate or complicated association or assemblage of related things, parts, units, etc.: the entire complex of our educational system; an apartment complex.

7. Psychol. a system of interrelated, emotion-charged ideas, feelings, memories, and impulses that is usually repressed and that gives rise to abnormal or pathological behavior.

8. a fixed idea; an obsessive notion.

9. Math.

a. an arbitrary set of elements of a group.

b. a collection of simplexes having specified properties.

10. Also called coordination compound . Chem. a compound in which independently existing molecules or ions of a nonmetal (complexing agent) form coordinate bonds with a metal atom or ion. Cf. ligand (def. 2).

11. Biochem. an entity composed of molecules in which the constituents maintain much of their chemical identity: receptor-hormone complex, enzyme-substrate complex.

v.t.

12. Chem. to form a complex with.

v.i.

13. Chem. to form a complex.

[ 1645-55; 1905-10 for def. 7; (adj.) complexus, ptp. of complecti, complectere to embrace, encompass, include, equiv. to complect- (see COMPLECT) + -tus ptp. suffix; (n.) complexus totality, complex (L: inclusion, grasping, embrace), equiv. to complect ( ere ) + -tus suffix of v. action; reanalysis of the L v. as "to intertwine (completely)" has influenced sense of the adj. ]

Syn. 3. knotty, tangled, labyrinthine. 6. network, web, tangle, labyrinth.

Ant. 2, 3. simple.

Random House Webster's Unabridged English dictionary.      Полный английский словарь Вебстер - Random House .