Intricate vs Labyrinthine - What's the difference?
intricate | labyrinthine |
Having a great deal of fine detail or complexity.
:
*(Joseph Addison) (1672–1719)
*:His style was fit to convey the most intricate business to the understanding with the utmost clearness.
*
*:As a matter of fact its narrow ornate façade presented not a single quiet space that the eyes might rest on after a tiring attempt to follow and codify the arabesques, foliations, and intricate vermiculations of what some disrespectfully dubbed as “near-aissance.”
To become enmeshed or entangled.
* 1864 October 18, J.E. Freund, “
To enmesh or entangle: to cause to intricate.
* 1994 December 12, , “
Physically resembling a labyrinth; with the qualities of a maze.
* 1996 , Steen L. Jensen, H. Gregerson. M. H. Shokouh-Amin, F. G. Moody, (eds.), Essentials of Experimental Surgery: Gastroenterology , page 27/4
* 2011 , Lincoln Child, Deep Storm , page 185
Twisting, convoluted, baffling, confusing, perplexing.
*
* 2000 , Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation , page 51
* 2005 , Michael W. Riley, "Plato's Cratylus: Argument, form, and structure", page 103
As adjectives the difference between intricate and labyrinthine
is that intricate is having a great deal of fine detail or complexity while labyrinthine is physically resembling a labyrinth; with the qualities of a maze.As a verb intricate
is to become enmeshed or entangled.intricate
English
Alternative forms
* entricateEtymology 1
From (etyl) intricatus'' (past participle of ''intricare ).Adjective
(en adjective)Etymology 2
As the adjective; or by analogy with extricateVerb
(intricat)How to Avoid the Use of Lint”, letter to the editor, in The New York Times (1864 October 23):
- washes off easily, without sticking or intricating into the wound.
Avoid Dunkirk II” (essay), in The New York Times :
- But the British and French won't hear of that; they want to get their troops extricated and our ground troops intricated .
Anagrams
* ----labyrinthine
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- In the pyloric canal, muscular ridges are more fixed than elsewhere and produce quite a labyrinthine surface.
- Crane trotted along the labyrinthine corridors of deck 3, accompanied by a young marine with close-cropped blond hair.
- Any attempt to answer that question would carry us into the labyrinthine corridors of Jefferson's famously elusive mind.
- By coupling "essence" with "name" within a series of contraposed pairs of names, Socrates indicates the point to which he thinks his labyrinthine argument has led so far in the Cratylus .