Adjacent Words

Intricate definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

IN'TRICATE, a. [L. intricatus, from intrico, to fold; in and tricor.] Entangled, involved; perplexed; complicated; obscure. We passed through intricate windings. We found the accounts intricate. The case on trial is intricate. The plot of a tragedy may be too intricate to please.
IN'TRICATE, v.t. To perplex; to make obscure. [Little used.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: having many complexly arranged elements; elaborate; "intricate lacework"

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Latin intricatus, past participle of intricare to entangle, from in- + tricae trifles, complications Date: 15th century 1. having many complexly interrelating parts or elements ; complicated <intricate machinery> <an intricate plot> 2. difficult to resolve or analyze Synonyms: see complex • intricately adverb • intricateness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. very complicated; perplexingly detailed. Derivatives: intricacy n. (pl. -ies). intricately adv. Etymology: ME f. L intricare intricat- (as IN-(2), tricare f. tricae tricks)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Intricate In"tri*cate, a. [L. intricatus, p. p. of intricare to entangle, perplex. Cf. Intrigue, Extricate.] Entangled; involved; perplexed; complicated; difficult to understand, follow, arrange, or adjust; as, intricate machinery, labyrinths, accounts, plots, etc. His style was fit to convey the most intricate business to the understanding with the utmost clearness. --Addison. The nature of man is intricate. --Burke. Syn: Intricate, Complex, Complicated. Usage: A thing is complex when it is made up of parts; it is complicated when those parts are so many, or so arranged, as to make it difficult to grasp them; it is intricate when it has numerous windings and confused involutions which it is hard to follow out. What is complex must be resolved into its parts; what is complicated must be drawn out and developed; what is intricate must be unraveled.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Intricate In"tri*cate, v. t. To entangle; to involve; to make perplexing. [Obs.] It makes men troublesome, and intricates all wise discourses. --Jer. Taylor.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

You use intricate to describe something that has many small parts or details. ...intricate patterns and motifs. ? simple ADJ: usu ADJ n • intricately ...intricately carved sculptures. ADV

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Entangled, complicated, involved, perplexed, obscure, mazy, difficult.

Moby Thesaurus

Byzantine, Daedalian, Herculean, abstruse, amalgamated, ambiguous, ambivalent, amphibious, anfractuous, arduous, baffling, balled up, bewildering, beyond one, blended, bothering, brutal, combined, complex, complicated, composite, compound, compounded, confounded, confounding, confused, confusing, conglomerate, convoluted, crabbed, cramp, critical, daedal, dappled, dedal, delicate, demanding, devious, difficile, difficult, discomposing, disconcerting, dismaying, distracting, disturbing, eclectic, elaborate, embarrassing, embrangled, enigmatic, entangled, equivocal, exacting, fancy, fifty-fifty, formidable, fouled up, garbled, gordian, hairy, half-and-half, hard, hard to understand, hard-earned, hard-fought, heterogeneous, implicated, indiscriminate, involuted, involved, ironic, jawbreaking, jumbled, knotted, knotty, laborious, labyrinthian, labyrinthine, loused up, many-faceted, many-sided, matted, mazy, mean, meandering, medley, messed up, mingled, miscellaneous, mixed, mixed up, motley, mucked up, multifaceted, multifarious, multinational, multiracial, mysterious, mystifying, no picnic, not easy, obfuscated, obscure, obscured, operose, ornate, overtechnical, patchy, perplexed, perplexing, perturbing, pluralistic, problematic, promiscuous, puzzling, ramified, rigorous, rococo, rough, roundabout, rugged, scrambled, screwed up, set with thorns, severe, sinuous, snarled, sophisticated, spiny, steep, strenuous, subtle, syncretic, tangled, tangly, thorny, thrown together, ticklish, toilsome, tortuous, tough, tricky, twisted, uphill, upsetting, varied, wicked, winding