Webster's English Dictionary

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complex

1. com.plex \ka:m-'pleks, k*m-', 'ka:m-.\ aj [L complexus, pp. of complecti 
   to embrace, comprise (a multitude of] objects), fr. com- + plectere to 
   braid - more at PLY 1a: composed of two or more parts : COMPOSITE  of a 
   word  1b1: having a bound form as one or both of its immediate constituents 
   {(Xunmanly is a ~ word} of a sentence  1b2: consisting of a main clause and 
   one or more subordinate clauses  2: hard to separate, analyze, or 
   solveMKNOTTY mean having confusingly interrelated parts. COMPLEX suggests 
   the unavoidable result of a necessary combining or folding and does not 
   imply a fault or failure; COMPLICATED applies to what offers great 
   difficulty in understanding, solving, or explaining; INTRICATE suggests 
   such interlacing of parts as to make it nearly impossible to follow or 
   grasp them separately; INVOLVED implies extreme complication and often 
   disorder; KNOTTY suggests complication and entanglement that make solution 
   or understanding improbable - com.plex.ly av SYN syn COMPLEX, COMPLICATED, 
   INTRICATE, INVOLVED, ( 
2. com.plex \'ka:m-.pleks\ n 1: a whole made up of complicated or 
   interrelated parts  2a: a group of culture traits relating to a single 
   activity (as hunting), p rocess (as use of flint), or culture unit 2b1: a 
   system of repressed desires and memories that exerts a dominating in 
   fluence upon the personality 2b2: an exaggerated reaction to a subject or 
   situation  2c: a group of obviously related units of which the degree and 
   nature of th e relationship in imperfectly known 3: a complex substance in 
   which the constituents are more intimately associ ated than in a simple 
   mixture