complement

English Online Dictionary. What means complement‎? What does complement mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmpləmənt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑmpləmənt/
• Homophone: compliment (in some dialects)

Etymology 1

From Middle English complement, from Latin complēmentum (“that which fills up or completes”), from compleō (“I fill up, I complete”) (English complete). Doublet of compliment. The verb is from the noun.

Noun

complement (countable and uncountable, plural complements)

1. The totality, the full amount or number which completes something. [from 16th c.]
2. (nautical) The whole working force of a vessel.
3. (astronomy, geometry) An angle which, together with a given angle, makes a right angle. [from 18th c.]
4. Something which completes, something which combines with something else to make up a complete whole; loosely, something perceived to be a harmonious or desirable partner or addition. [from 19th c.]
6. (grammar, linguistics) A word or group of words that completes a grammatical construction in the predicate and that describes or is identified with the subject or object. [from 19th c.]
7. (palaeography, phonetics) A phonetic complement is a graphic element that modifies another, such as (in Linear B script) a small syllabogram that is attached to a logogram as an abbreviation of its reading (as opposed to an adjunct that abbreviates an adjective that modifies that logogram).
8. (music) An interval which, together with the given interval, makes an octave. [from 19th c.]
9. (optics) The color which, when mixed with the given color, gives black (for mixing pigments) or white (for mixing light). [from 19th c.]

10. (set theory) Given two sets, the set containing one set's elements that are not members of the other set (whether a relative complement or an absolute complement). [from 20th c.]

11. (immunology) One of several blood proteins that work with antibodies during an immune response. [from 20th c.]
13. (logic) An expression related to some other expression such that it is true under the same conditions that make other false, and vice versa. [from 20th c.]
14. (electronics) A voltage level with the opposite logical sense to the given one.
15. (computing) A bit with the opposite value to the given one; the logical complement of a number.
16. (computing, mathematics) The diminished radix complement of a number; the nines' complement of a decimal number; the ones' complement of a binary number.

17. (computing, mathematics) The radix complement of a number; the two's complement of a binary number.

18. (computing, mathematics) The numeric complement of a number.

19. (genetics) A nucleotide sequence in which each base is replaced by the complementary base of the given sequence: adenine (A) by thymine (T) or uracil (U), cytosine (C) by guanine (G), and vice versa.

20. (biochemistry) Synonym of alexin.
21. (economics) Abbreviation of complementary good.
22. (now rare) Something (or someone) that completes; the consummation. [from 14th c.]
23. (obsolete) The act of completing something, or the fact of being complete; completion, completeness, fulfilment. [15th–18th c.]
24. (obsolete) Something which completes one's equipment, dress etc.; an accessory. [16th–17th c.]

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

complement (third-person singular simple present complements, present participle complementing, simple past and past participle complemented)

1. To complete, to bring to perfection, to make whole.

2. To provide what the partner lacks and lack what the partner provides, thus forming part of a whole.

3. To change a voltage, number, color, etc. to its complement.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

References

• DeLone et. al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. →ISBN.

Etymology 2

See compliment.

Noun

complement (countable and uncountable, plural complements)

1. Obsolete spelling or misspelling of compliment.

Verb

complement (third-person singular simple present complements, present participle complementing, simple past and past participle complemented)

1. Obsolete spelling or misspelling of compliment.

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin complēmentum. Cf. also compliment.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [kum.pləˈmen]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [kom.pləˈment]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [kom.pleˈment]

Noun

complement m (plural complements)

1. complement

Related terms

• complir

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French complément.

Noun

complement n (plural complemente)

1. complement

Declension