The act or process of complicating; the state of being complicated; intricate or confused relation of parts; entanglement; complexity. [1913 Webster]
"A complication of diseases." [1913 Webster]

"Through and beyond these dark complications of the present, the New England founders looked to the great necessities of future times." [1913 Webster]
A disease or diseases, or adventitious circumstances or conditions, coexistent with and modifying a primary disease, but not necessarily connected with it. [1913 Webster]

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OXFORD DICTIONARY

complication, n.
1 a an involved or confused condition or state. b a complicating circumstance; a difficulty.
2 Med. a secondary disease or condition aggravating a previous one.

Etymology

F complication or LL complicatio (as COMPLICATE)

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THESAURUS

complication

abnormality, abstruseness, action, acute disease, affection, affliction, ailment, allergic disease, allergy, anagnorisis, angle, architectonics, architecture, arduousness, argument, atmosphere, atrophy, background, bacterial disease, bind, birth defect, blight, bothersomeness, burdensomeness, cardiovascular disease, catastrophe, characterization, chronic disease, circulatory disease, clutch, color, complaint, complexity, complexness, condition, congenital defect, continuity, contrivance, convolution, crabbedness, crampedness, crunch, deepness, defect, deficiency disease, deformity, degenerative disease, denouement, design, development, device, difficultness, difficulty, dilemma, disability, disease, disorder, distemper, drawback, embarrassing position, embarrassment, endemic, endemic disease, endocrine disease, entanglement, epidemic disease, episode, esoterica, fable, falling action, fine how-do-you-do, functional disease, fungus disease, gastrointestinal disease, genetic disease, gimmick, hairiness, handicap, hardness, hell to pay, hereditary disease, hobble, hot water, how-do-you-do, iatrogenic disease, illness, imbroglio, incident, indisposition, infectious disease, infirmity, intricacy, intricateness, involution, involvement, jam, knottiness, laboriousness, line, local color, malady, malaise, mess, mix, mood, morass, morbidity, morbus, motif, movement, muscular disease, mythos, neurological disease, nutritional disease, obstacle, obstruction, occupational disease, onerousness, oppressiveness, organic disease, pandemic disease, parlous straits, pass, pathological condition, pathology, peripeteia, perplexity, pickle, pinch, plan, plant disease, plight, plot, predicament, pretty pass, pretty pickle, pretty predicament, problem, profoundness, profundity, protozoan disease, psychosomatic disease, quagmire, quicksand, ramification, recognition, reconditeness, respiratory disease, rigor, rigorousness, rising action, rockiness, ruggedness, scheme, scrape, secondary disease, secondary plot, seediness, sickishness, sickness, signs, slant, slough, snag, spot, squeeze, stew, sticky wicket, story, strait, straits, strenuousness, structure, subject, subplot, subtlety, swamp, switch, symptomatology, symptomology, symptoms, syndrome, tanglement, technicality, the pip, thematic development, theme, tight spot, tight squeeze, tightrope, toilsomeness, tone, topic, toughness, tricky spot, troublesomeness, twist, unholy mess, urogenital disease, virus disease, wasting disease, worm disease

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ROGET THESAURUS

complication

Complexity

N complexity, complexness, complexus, complication, implication, intricacy, intrication, perplexity, network, labyrinth, wilderness, jungle, involution, raveling, entanglement, coil, sleave, tangled skein, knot, Gordian knot, wheels within wheels, kink, gnarl, knarl, webwork, difficulty, gnarled, knarled, complex, complexed, intricate, complicated, perplexed, involved, raveled, entangled, knotted, tangled, inextricable, irreducible.

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