Word Direct Answers

What does "complement" mean?

Complement: That which is required to supply a deficiency, or to complete a symmetrical whole. History is the complement of poetry. Sir J. Stephen.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Full quantity, number, or amount; a complete set; completeness. To exceed his complement and number appointed him which was one hundred and twenty persons. Hakluyt.
  2. 3.(Math.) A second quantity added to a given quantity to make equal to a third given quantity.
  3. 4.Something added for ornamentation; an accessory. [Obs.] Without vain art or curious complements. Spenser.
  4. 5.(Naut.) The whole working force of a vessel.
  5. 6.(Mus.) The interval wanting to complete the octave; -- the fourth is the complement of the fifth, the sixth of the third.
  6. 7.A compliment. [Obs.] Shak. Arithmetical compliment of a logarithm. See under Logarithm. -- Arithmetical complement of a number (Math.), the difference between that number and the next higher power of 10; as, 4 is the complement of 6, and 16 of 84. -- Complement of an arc or angle (Geom.), the difference between that arc or angle and 90º. -- Complement of a parallelogram. (Math.) See Gnomon. -- In her complement (Her.), said of the moon when represented as full.
  7. 8.To supply a lack; to supplement. [R.]
  8. 9.To compliment. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.

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