complication

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French complication, from Latin complicatio, complicationem. Morphologically complicate + -ion

noun

  1. The act or process of complicating.
  2. The state of being complicated; intricate or confused relation of parts; complexity.
  3. A person who doesn't fit in with the main scheme of things; an interloper.
  4. (medicine) A disease or diseases, or adventitious circumstances or conditions, coexistent with and modifying a primary disease, but not necessarily connected with it.
  5. (horology) A feature beyond basic time display in a timepiece.
    Obsessed, he was after a watch that contained the greatest number of complications in the boldest combinations in the smallest space imaginable. 2013, Stacy Perman, A Grand Complication: The Race to Build the World's Most Legendary Watch, Simon and Schuster, page 35
    In their final year, each student must make their own watch with a complication—from a tourbillon to a chiming mode to having a date display. 2023-05-28, Brian Ng, “Is one of these students the next Breguet?”, in FT Weekend, HTSI, page 43

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