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MUSCOVITE Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary

complicacy v complexity

Hi,

Is it true that these two words can be used interchangeably?

and the diffference between them is only negligible (if any)?

perhaps the former is just more formal than the latter?

mus-te
  

Top answer

They're probably similar in meaning, but complicacy sounds/looks ugly compared to complexity if you are using them in the same way. The word complication can also refer to knock-on effects of complexity, in a way that complex doesn't do. d

— Meteorquake

  • They're probably similar in meaning, but complicacy sounds/looks ugly compared to complexity if you are using them in the same way.
  • The word complication can also refer to knock-on effects of complexity, in a way that complex doesn't do.
  • d
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9 Answers
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They're probably similar in meaning, but complicacy sounds/looks ugly compared to complexity if you are using them in the same way.

The word complication can also refer to knock-on effects of complexity, in a way that complex doesn't do.

d
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Yep agree. Also as a native speaker I don't think I've ever used 'complicacy', it's just awkward..
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The Corpus of Contemporary American English has no citations for 'complicacy', but it has 7,166 for 'complexity'. To me, 'complicacy' sounds almost like a made-up word.
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dictionary com has...
com·pli·ca·cy
[kom-pli-kuh-see]
noun, plural com·pli·ca·cies for 2.
1. the state of being complicated; complicatedness.
2. a complication: the numerous complicacies of travel in such a remote country.
Origin:
1820–30; complic(ate) + -acy, modeled on such pairs as confederacy, confederate
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meteorquake,
KatrinaB,
ozzourti,

Thanks for your interesting comments! Emotion: shake hands
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MUSCOVITEthese two words
Until today, when I had to look it up to be sure it was even a word, I had never heard of the word "complicacy". In fact, my spell checker underlines it as a misspelled word even though it can be found in a dictionary.

CJ
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Hi CalifJim,

Believe it or not, I am not trying to "puzzle" or "shock" anybody when asking SUCH questions.

I have got a few paperback dictionaries (Eng-Rus) printed in the sixties last century in the former SU (but compiled *** knows when and by whom :-).
One of them (the smallest) consists of ~ 40,000 entries. And it literally ABOUNTS with different "oddities" :-)

F
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MUSCOVITEAnother funny example - the dictionary has an entry for "eiderdown" (=comforter) but completely ignores "comforter" and "duvet".
In the early 1960s very few British people had heard of a duvet. We had sheets, blankets, an eiderdown and a bedspread on our beds.

The language changes, and new words appear as new concepts appear. That's why (unti
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MUSCOVITEfamily heirloom
Keep the heirloom, but get a new dictionary or use what you can find on-line.
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