Complicity

noun

noun ·4 syllables ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state of being complicit; involvement as a partner or accomplice, especially in a crime or other wrongdoing. countable, uncountable

    "He drew up a placard, offering Twenty Pounds reward for the apprehension of Stephen Blackpool, suspected of complicity in the robbery of Coketown Bank."

  2. 2
    guilt as an accomplice in a crime or offense wordnet
  3. 3
    Complexity. archaic, countable, uncountable

    "How easy is it, on the other hand, to an enlightened teacher, particularly in the beginning, to elucidate the various forms of rhythm by methodical arrangement in respect of simplicity and increasing complicity or mixture!"

Synonyms

All synonyms
collusionarraignabilityarraignablenessartificeassociationbipartisanship

Example

More examples

"Natalia and Veronica looked at each other in complicity."

Etymology

From French complicité, from Middle French, from Old French complice (“accomplice”), from Late Latin complic-, stem of complex (“partner, confederate”), from Latin complicō (“fold together”).

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