Complicit

adj

adj ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Associated with or participating in an activity, especially one of a questionable nature.

    "It [slavery] has set the seal of a complicit, guilty silence upon the most orthodox pulpits and the saintliest tongues, […]"

Adjective
  1. 1
    involved with others in an activity that is unlawful or morally wrong wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
acquiescentacquiescentcomplicitouscomplicitousin on it

Example

More examples

"They were complicit in those murders, and this I'll prove to you during the course of the trial."

Etymology

Most likely a back-formation from complicity, under the influence of words such as explicit, as though the suffix -ity were composed of -it (from Latin -itus) and -y.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.