complicate

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A complicated situation is one that's hard to understand or deal with because many things are happening at once.

When we say something complicate, we usually mean it makes a problem worse by adding new and difficult details. This can happen in all sorts of situations - like planning a big project for work, where you have to consider a lot of different factors and timelines, or trying to solve a tricky puzzle that gets harder as you go along.

How common is "complicate"?

Word complicate is considered uncommon in modern English.
It has a balanced usage among all categories: speech, fiction, newspapers and academic texts.
Definitions

verb

  • (transitive) To make complex; to modify so as to make something intricate or difficult.

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