MEANING
1. Something that completes or improves another thing; as a verb, make that contribution.
2. The complete number or quantity of people or things needed for a particular purpose.
3. An expression that completes the meaning of another element in a sentence.
Use it for
showing how different methods strengthen one another; distinguishing completion from simple duplication; explaining why two perspectives work better togetherIdentifies contributions that complete or enhance one another rather than merely add more of the same. Academic functions: Analysis / Interpretation, Research / Methodology, Synthesis.
Words that belong together
- complement each other
- a complement to the analysis
- complement qualitative evidence
On the page
The interviews complement the survey by revealing how respondents interpret its categories.
The historical account is a complement to the economic model, not a substitute for testing its assumptions.
The institution lacked the full complement of staff assumed by the implementation plan.
The comparison distinguishes facilities with their required complement of equipment from those with only partial provision.
In the sentence “The result seems uncertain,” “uncertain” is a subject complement.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- complement
- Past tense
- complemented
- Past participle
- complemented
- Present participle
- complementing
Usage notes
Count noun: complement, complements; uncountable in the immune-system collective use. Transitive verb: complements, complemented, complemented, complementing. Complement differs from compliment, which concerns praise. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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