How to spell complicated

hear itcom·pli·cat·ed/'kɑmplə,keɪtɪd/adjectiveRules and real life

What it means: Difficult to understand or analyze.

In a sentence: Learning to tie your shoes can seem complicated at first.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as compllicated or complicateded.

Same family: complication, complicating, uncomplicated, complex, intricate. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Complicated” comes from the Latin word “complicare,” meaning “to fold together.” The idea is that something complicated is like many things folded into one, making it hard to see or understand clearly.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

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