intricate
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
intricate
adj 1: having many complexly arranged elements; elaborate;
"intricate lacework"
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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.
[1913 Webster]
His style was fit to convey the most intricate business
to the understanding with the utmost clearness.
--Addison.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
148 Moby Thesaurus words for "intricate":
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
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