complicity means the state of being complicit; involvement as a partner or accomplice, especially in a crime or other wrongdoing. It carries an Arena rating of 1542, earned across 6 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, complicity ranks #275 of 42,747 for Qualifying, #625 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,279 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #1,303 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
Why “complicity” is a great word
The state of being involved with others in an unlawful or wrongful activity. From French complicité, from Old French complice ('accomplice'), from Late Latin complic-, stem of complex ('partner, confederate'), from Latin complicō ('to fold together'), first attested in English 1650–60. Unlike 'collusion,' which implies a secret pact to deceive, or 'innocence,' its direct antonym, complicity is the broader, often quieter folding-together of wills in wrongdoing. It is the clerk who stamps forms she knows are forged, the neighbor who hears cries and turns up the television, the silence of a room where everyone understands what no one will name—the peculiar intimacy of shared guilt that binds more tightly than innocence ever could.
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”).
noun
- The state of being complicit; involvement as a partner or accomplice, especially in a crime or other wrongdoing.e.g.“He drew up a placard, offering Twenty Pounds reward for the apprehension of Stephen Blackpool, suspected of complicity in the robbery of Coketown Bank.” — 1854, Charles Dickens, chapter 32, in Hard Times:
- Complexity.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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