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Complicate vs Messy - What's the difference?

complicate | messy |

As a verb complicate

is to fold or twist together; to combine intricately; to make complex; to combine or associate so as to make intricate or difficult.

As an adjective complicate

is (obsolete) intertwined.

As a noun messy is

.

complicate

English

Verb

(complicat)
  • To fold or twist together; to combine intricately; to make complex; to combine or associate so as to make intricate or difficult.
  • Don't complicate yourself in issues that are beyond the scope of your education.
  • to expose involvement in a convoluted matter.
  • John has been complicated in the affair by new tapes that surfaced.
    The DA has made every effort to complicate me in the scandal.

    Synonyms

    * (expose involvement in a convoluted matter) intricate, entangle, embroil, mix up (in something), mire

    See also

    * complex

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) Intertwined.
  • Complex, complicated.
  • * 1745 , Edward Young, Night-Thoughts , I:
  • How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, / How complicate , how wonderful, is Man!

    messy

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • In a disorderly state; chaotic; disorderly.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Boundary problems , passage=Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory.}}
  • (of a person) Prone to causing mess.
  • (of a situation) Difficult or unpleasant to deal with.
  • Synonyms

    (in a disorderly state) untidy, chaotic, disorderly, cluttered

    Antonyms

    * neat * orderly

    Derived terms

    * messily * messiness

    Descendants

    * German: (l)