Dictionary
com•plex
Pronunciation: (
—adj., v.kum-pleks', kom'pleks;
—n.kom'pleks), [key]—
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.
1. an intricate or complicated association or assemblage of related things, parts, units, etc.:
the entire complex of our educational system; an apartment complex.
2. 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.
3. a fixed idea; an obsessive notion.
4. Math.
a. an arbitrary set of elements of a group.
b. a collection of simplexes having specified properties.
5. 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).
6. Biochem.an entity composed of molecules in which the constituents maintain much of their chemical identity:
receptor-hormone complex, enzyme-substrate complex.
—
v.t.
Chem.to form a complex with.
—
v.i.
Chem.to form a complex.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
