Dictionary  com•plexPronunciation: ( —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.
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