complicating

verb

present participle of complicate
1
as in intensifying
to make complex or difficult the need to go to both a PTA conference and condo board meeting really complicates tonight's schedule

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in deepening
to make more severe asthma that has recently been complicated by a bout of bronchitis

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of complicating Further complicating the government's efforts to bring the French deficit under control are nationwide student protests, which have rippled outward from Paris since late September. — Chloe Taylor, CNBC, 15 Oct. 2026 Unlike a conventional ballistic missile’s warhead, a hypersonic glide vehicle is built to maneuver during flight, potentially complicating an opponent’s efforts to track and intercept it. — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 15 Oct. 2026 Further complicating the math is the another Dan Sullivan who will be on the ballot next month. — Christian Datoc, The Washington Examiner, 14 Oct. 2026 Moreover, the perpetrators do not appear to have used malicious code on the fridge controllers, potentially complicating efforts to track down who carried out the cyberattack, added Aimé. — Sana Noor Haq, CNN Money, 14 Oct. 2026 With VMware’s strategic changes complicating future planning, Topgolf decided to migrate its on-premises workloads, including those for its venues, offices, labs, and data centers. — Scharon Harding, ArsTechnica, 13 Oct. 2026 Further complicating scientific investigations were the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the ensuing civil war. — Micah Hanks, Space.com, 12 Oct. 2026 But there are complicating factors that are stymying that growth, and they are tied in large part to imports. — Kate Nishimura, Footwear News, 7 Oct. 2026 The United Arab Emirates has canceled all flights to Israel, complicating travel for hundreds of passengers who fly between the countries on a typical day. — Sam Mednick, Los Angeles Times, 2 Oct. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for complicating
  1. intensifying
  2. deepening
  3. perplexing
  4. worsening
  5. embarrassing
  6. aggravating
  7. confusing
  8. entangling
Verb
  • The fall was mainly due to worries over artificial intelligence financing and intensifying competition denting sentiment.
    — Lim Hui Jie, CNBC, 13 Oct. 2026
  • An intensifying area of low pressure tracking through Canada will drag a strong cold front across our region Friday.
    — Grant Gilmore, CBS News, 12 Oct. 2026
Definition of intensifying
Verb
  • Building skills in lower-wage origin jobs, deepening them in gateway jobs, and applying them to reach higher-paying destination jobs is how workers thrive and our talent pool expands.
    — Byron Auguste, Fortune, 13 Oct. 2026
  • Last week, Kenya became the second country after Uganda to report an Ebola case imported from Congo, deepening concerns about the virus spreading across borders.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 13 Oct. 2026
Definition of deepening
Verb
  • Gibson Nash, 21, was charged with first-degree murder after a series of perplexing events eventually led police to his mother’s bloodied body.
    — Natasha Holt, FOXNews.com, 9 Aug. 2026
  • But there were also perplexing moments that punctured the gravitas of the event (even for an event built around hand-to-hand combat).
    — Alex Weprin, HollywoodReporter, 15 June 2026
Definition of perplexing
Verb
  • The victim went to the campus health clinic in August with worsening finger tingling and numbness, and leg weakness.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 15 Oct. 2026
  • Stocks dropped to their worst day since July on Wednesday after the latest signal that inflation is worsening.
    — Stan Choe, Los Angeles Times, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of worsening
Verb
  • My New York neighbors barely said hello; in Singapore, a stranger would probably politely look away rather than risk embarrassing you.
    — Amanda Lee Koe, Los Angeles Times, 14 Oct. 2026
  • After those results went public, embarrassing Muñiz and a few other judges, the Florida Bar stopped conducting surveys and publishing the results … leaving Florida voters with even fewer resources.
    — Scott Maxwell, The Orlando Sentinel, 13 Oct. 2026
Definition of embarrassing
Verb
  • And those are things that end up aggravating behavioral health disabilities.
    — Joseph Shapiro, NPR, 30 Sep. 2026
  • With Williams dealing with an injury that’s always tricky for players in this league, there’s no reason to rush him back and risk aggravating it again.
    — Scott Thompson OutKick, FOXNews.com, 29 Sep. 2026
Definition of aggravating
Verb
  • Bill Belichick has made a Hall of Fame career on confusing young quarterbacks.
    — Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 18 Oct. 2026
  • The crowd even includes Sam, who has a fun moment catching up with Roy and confusing him with an observation that sounds like it was inspired by The Wizard of Oz.
    — Keith Phipps, Vulture, 7 Oct. 2026
Definition of confusing
Verb
  • To transport us to this emotionally sticky place, the Melbourne singer transitions into a syrupy, mature sound, entangling some of his most reflective lyrics to date with ’90s house, trip-hop, shoegaze, and touches of drum 'n' bass.
    — Hattie Lindert, Pitchfork, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Conservatives shuddered to think how close the country had come to permanent entangling alliances.
    — Beverly Gage, New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of entangling

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complicates
complicating
complication
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Cite this Entry

“Complicating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/complicating. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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