- the act of complicating, or making involved
- a complicated condition or structure; complex, involved, or confused relationship of parts
- a complicating factor or occurrence as in the plot of a story or in the unfolding of events
- Med. a second disease or abnormal condition occurring during the course of a primary disease
noun
The definition of a complication is an undesired development that makes something harder or makes something worse.
When you have surgery and a problem develops as a result of the surgery, this is an example of a complication.
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complication
Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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complication
noun
- The act of complicating.
- A confused or intricate relationship of parts.
- A factor, condition, or element that complicates.
- Medicine A secondary disease, an accident, or a negative reaction occurring during the course of an illness and usually aggravating the illness.
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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Noun
(plural complications)
- The act or process of complicating; the state of being complicated; intricate or confused relation of parts; entanglement; complexity.
- A person who doesn't fit in with the main scheme of things; an interloper; someone you need to placate.
- (medicine) A disease or diseases, or adventitious circumstances or conditions, coexistent with and modifying a primary disease, but not necessarily connected with it.
- A feature beyond basic time display in a timepiece.
Origin
From Middle French complication.
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
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complication - Medical Definition
n.
A secondary disease, an accident, or a negative reaction occurring during the course of an illness and usually aggravating the illness.
The American Heritage Dictionary of Medicine © 2018 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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Sentence Examples
- Trans., 1894) investigated the question for the cases of loaded and unloaded shafts, and, owing to the complication arising from the application of the general theory to the cases of loaded shafts, devised empirical formulae for the critical speeds of shafts loaded with heavy pulleys, based generally upon the following assumption, which is stated for the case of a shaft carrying one pulley: If Ni, N1 be the separate speeds of whirl of the shaft and pulley on the assumption that the effect of one is neglected when that of the other is under consideration, then the resulting speed of whirl due to both causes combined may be taken to be of the form N1N2~!
- Xander, however, was a complication she'd never before run across.
- But one complication was removed by the annulling in 1428 of his marriage with Jacqueline.
- A further complication occurs in each of these two classes of eye.
- Arago was now on his death-bed, under a complication of diseases, induced, no doubt, by the hardships and labours of his earlier years.
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WORDS NEAR complication IN THE DICTIONARY
- complication
- complications
- complicator
- complicators