- complex
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—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.) < L complexus, ptp. of complecti, complectere to embrace, encompass, include, equiv. to complect- (see COMPLECT) + -tus ptp. suffix; (n.) < LL 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.
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in chemistry, a substance, either an ion or an electrically neutral molecule, formed by the union of simpler substances (as compounds or ions) and held together by forces that are chemical (i.e., dependent on specific properties of particular atomic structures) rather than physical. The formation of complexes has a strong effect on the behaviour of solutions. See also chemical association; coordination compound.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
