complication

English

watch with various complications (sense 5)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French complication, from Latin complicatio, complicationem. Morphologically complicate +‎ -ion

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: com‧pli‧ca‧tion

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

complication (countable and uncountable, plural complications)

1. The act or process of complicating.
2. The state of being complicated; intricate or confused relation of parts; complexity.
3. A person who doesn't fit in with the main scheme of things; an interloper.
4. (medicine) A disease or diseases, or adventitious circumstances or conditions, coexistent with and modifying a primary disease, but not necessarily connected with it.

   Coordinate terms: sequela, comorbidity

6. (horology) A feature beyond basic time display in a timepiece.
   • 2013, Stacy Perman, A Grand Complication: The Race to Build the World's Most Legendary Watch, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 35:

     Obsessed, he was after a watch that contained the greatest number of complications in the boldest combinations in the smallest space imaginable.

   • 2023 May 28, Brian Ng, “Is one of these students the next Breguet?”, in FT Weekend, HTSI, page 43:

     In their final year, each student must make their own watch with a complication—from a tourbillon to a chiming mode to having a date display.

7. (obsolete) A twisting or intertwining.
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica:

     the snaky complication in the Caduceus or rod of Hermes.

Derived terms

• decomplication
• overcomplication
• uncomplication

 

Translations

act of complicating

• Arabic: تَعْقِيد m (taʕqīd)

  Hijazi Arabic: تَعْقِيد m (taʕgīd)

• Bulgarian: усложнение (bg) n (usložnenie), затруднение (bg) n (zatrudnenie)
• Catalan: complicació (ca) f
• French: complication (fr) f
• German: Komplikation (de) f
• Romanian: complicație (ro) f
• Russian: усложне́ние (ru) n (usložnénije), затрудне́ние (ru) n (zatrudnénije), осложне́ние (ru) n (osložnénije)
• Spanish: complicación f
• Swedish: komplikation (sv) c, förveckling (sv) c

the state of being complicated

• Maori: kūrakuraku, powhiwhi, pīroiroitanga
• Polish: komplikacja (pl) f
• Romanian: complicație (ro) f
• Tagalog: kasalimuotan
• Ukrainian: скла́дність f (skládnistʹ)

(medicine)

• Arabic: مُضَاعَفَة f (muḍāʕafa)
• Bulgarian: усложнение (bg) n (usložnenie)
• Catalan: complicació (ca) f
• Dutch: complicatie (nl) f
• French: complication (fr) f
• German: Komplikation (de) f
• Hebrew: סיבוך m (sibúkh)
• Indonesian: komplikasi (id)
• Italian: complicazione (it)
• Maori: pōauautanga, pīroiroitanga
• Polish: komplikacja (pl) f, powikłanie (pl) n
• Portuguese: complicação (pt)
• Romanian: complicație (ro) f
• Russian: осложне́ние (ru) n (osložnénije)
• Spanish: complicación
• Swedish: svit (sv) c
• Tagalog: komplikasyon

feature beyond basic time display

• German: Komplikation (de) f, Complication f
• Polish: komplikacja (pl) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Irish: ^{(please verify)} aimpléis f, ^{(please verify)} aimpléiseacht f

Further reading

• complication (medicine) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• complication (horology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “complication”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “complication”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• accomplition

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin complicātiōnem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.pli.ka.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -sjɔ̃
• Homophone: complications
• Hyphenation: com‧pli‧ca‧tion

Noun

complication f (plural complications)

1. complication

   Antonym: simplification

Further reading

• “complication”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Interlingua

Noun

complication (plural complicationes)

1. complication