English Explanatory Dictionary

complement

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The totality, the full amount or number which completes something.
  2. The whole working force of a vessel.
  3. An angle which, together with a given angle, makes a right angle.
  4. Something which completes, something which combines with something else to make up a complete whole; loosely, something perceived to be a harmonious or desirable partner or addition.
  5. A word or group of words that completes a grammatical construction in the predicate and that describes or is identified with the subject or object.
  6. A phonetic complement is a graphic element that modifies another, such as (in Linear B script) a small syllabogram that is attached to a logogram as an abbreviation of its reading (as opposed to an adjunct that abbreviates an adjective that modifies that logogram).
  7. An interval which, together with the given interval, makes an octave.
  8. The color which, when mixed with the given color, gives black (for mixing pigments) or white (for mixing light).
  9. Given two sets, the set containing one set's elements that are not members of the other set (whether a relative complement or an absolute complement).
  10. One of several blood proteins that work with antibodies during an immune response.
  11. An expression related to some other expression such that it is true under the same conditions that make other false, and vice versa.
  12. A voltage level with the opposite logical sense to the given one.
verb
  1. To complete, to bring to perfection, to make whole.
  2. To provide what the partner lacks and lack what the partner provides, thus forming part of a whole.
  3. To change a voltage, number, color, etc. to its complement.
noun
  1. Obsolete spelling or misspelling of compliment.
verb
  1. Obsolete spelling or misspelling of compliment.

Pronunciation

/ˈkɒmpləmənt/ /ˈkɑmpləmənt/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-complement.wav LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-complement.wav

Word forms

complement complements complementing complemented

Etymology

From Middle English complement, from Latin complēmentum (“that which fills up or completes”), from compleō (“to fill up; to complete”) (English complete). Doublet of compliment. The verb is from the noun.

Synonyms

alexin

Related words

complementary complete counterpart compliment inversion invert negate negation supplement

Derived words

anticomplement clausal complement complemental complementarian complementisation complementization complementize complement membrane attack complex complementoid complementologist complementology complementopathy complementophile complement protein complement system diminished radix complement full complement hypercomplementemia in complement logical complement nines' complement numeric complement object complement ones' complement orthocomplement orthogonal complement pseudo-complement radix complement relative pseudo-complement subject complement ten's complement transcomplement two's complement complementable complementer noncomplementing recomplement

Translations

Bulgarian: допълнение Bulgarian: добавка Finnish: täydennys French: complète Galician: complemento German: Komplement Greek: συμπλήρωμα Italian: completamento Italian: complemento Latin: complementum Portuguese: complemento Russian: дополне́ние Russian: доба́вка Spanish: complemento Ukrainian: доповнення Ukrainian: добавка
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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