complexity.

1. The presence of numerous or intricately related parts, conditions or operations that make something difficult to understand or manage.

2. The amount or growth of computational resources required to solve a problem or perform an algorithm as input size changes.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• structural complexity
• complexity of an argument

On the page

The argument’s complexity arose from interacting conditions rather than obscure vocabulary.

Structural complexity increased when the departments began sharing responsibilities.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: definition, comparison, qualification, causal analysis. Disciplines: academic writing, institutional analysis, general research. Commonness: common.