February 19 2009

Complex

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. 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. complex sentence.

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

–noun

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.	Psychology. 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.	Mathematics. a. an arbitrary set of elements of a group. b. a collection of simplexes having specified properties.

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

Rachel

Kristen