"complicate" meaning in English

See complicate in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

IPA: /ˈkɑmplɪkeɪt/ [US], /ˈkɒmplɪkeɪt/ [UK] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-complicate.wav [UK] Forms: complicate [canonical], complicates [third-person, singular], complicated [past], complicated [past, participle], complicating [present, participle]
Head templates: {{verb|complicat|e}} [POS TABLE]
  1. If you complicate a task, you make it difficult to do.
    Sense id: simple-complicate-en-verb-i1h5eQeB
  2. If you complicate an explanation, you make it difficult to understand.
    Sense id: simple-complicate-en-verb-abVS3Zqb
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "complicate",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "complicates",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "complicated",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "complicated",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "complicating",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "complicat",
        "2": "e"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": "com‧pli‧cate",
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "My job is harder. They have complicated it by making me answer the telephone, too."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you complicate a task, you make it difficult to do."
      ],
      "id": "simple-complicate-en-verb-i1h5eQeB",
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Just tell me the facts. Please don't complicate the account with unnecessary details."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you complicate an explanation, you make it difficult to understand."
      ],
      "id": "simple-complicate-en-verb-abVS3Zqb",
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈkɑmplɪkeɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈkɒmplɪkeɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-complicate.wav",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "complicate"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "complicate",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "complicates",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "complicated",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "complicated",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "complicating",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "complicat",
        "2": "e"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": "com‧pli‧cate",
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "My job is harder. They have complicated it by making me answer the telephone, too."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you complicate a task, you make it difficult to do."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Just tell me the facts. Please don't complicate the account with unnecessary details."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you complicate an explanation, you make it difficult to understand."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈkɑmplɪkeɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈkɒmplɪkeɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-complicate.wav",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "complicate"
}

Download raw JSONL data for complicate meaning in English (1.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-10 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (df33d17 and 4ed51a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.