Intriguing vs Intricate - What's the difference?

As adjectives the difference between intriguing and intricate

is that intriguing is causing a desire to know more; mysterious while intricate is having a great deal of fine detail or complexity.

As verbs the difference between intriguing and intricate

is that intriguing is while intricate is to become enmeshed or entangled.

As a noun intriguing

is an intrigue.

intriguing

English

Adjective

(en adjective)

Causing a desire to know more; mysterious.

Synonyms

* fascinating, interesting, attractive

Verb

(head)

Noun

(en noun)

An intrigue.

* Thomas Longueville, The Curious Case of Lady Purbeck

In all these negotiations, and caballings, and intriguings , the person most concerned, Frances Coke, the beauty and the heiress, was only the ball in the game.

intricate

English

Alternative forms

* entricate

Etymology 1

From (etyl) intricatus'' (past participle of ''intricare ).

Adjective

(en adjective)

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.”

Etymology 2

As the adjective; or by analogy with extricate

Verb

(intricat)

To become enmeshed or entangled.

* 1864 October 18, J.E. Freund, “ 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.

To enmesh or entangle: to cause to intricate.

* 1994 December 12, , “ 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

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