|
|
com·plete (k m-pl t )adj. com·plet·er, com·plet·est 1. Having all necessary or normal parts, components, or steps; entire: a complete meal. 2. Botany Having all principal parts, namely, the sepals, petals, stamens, and pistil or pistils. Used of a flower. 3. Having come to an end; concluded. 4. Absolute; total: "In Cairo I have seen buildings which were falling down as they were being put up, buildings whose incompletion was complete" (William H. Gass). 5. a. Skilled; accomplished: a complete musician. b. Thorough; consummate: a complete coward. 6. Football Caught in bounds by a receiver: a complete pass. tr.v. com·plet·ed, com·plet·ing, com·pletes 1. To bring to a finish or an end: She has completed her studies. 2. To make whole, with all necessary elements or parts: A second child would complete their family. 3. Football To throw (a forward pass) so as to be caught by a receiver.
[Middle English complet, from Latin compl tus, past participle of compl re, to fill out : com-, intensive pref.; see com- + pl re, to fill; see pel -1 in Indo-European roots.]
com·plete ly adv. com·plete ness n. com·ple tive adj. Synonyms: complete, close, end, finish, conclude, terminate These verbs mean to bring or come to a natural or proper stopping point. Complete and finish suggest the final stage in an undertaking: "Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime" (Reinhold Niebuhr). "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job" (Winston S. Churchill). Close applies to the ending of something ongoing or continuing: The band closed the concert with an encore. End emphasizes finality: We ended the meal with fruit and cheese. Conclude is more formal than complete and close: The author concluded the article by restating the major points. Terminate suggests reaching an established limit: The playing of the national anthem terminated the station's broadcast for the night. It also indicates the dissolution of a formal arrangement: The firm terminated my contract yesterday. Usage Note: Complete is sometimes considered absolute like perfect or chief, which is not subject to comparison. Nonetheless, it can be qualified as more or less, for example. A majority of the Usage Panel accepts the example His book is the most complete treatment of the subject. See Usage Note at absolute. |
Completeness - Fragmentary, like the text of a corrupt manuscript whose words have been effaced in the wind and rain —Arthur A. Cohen
- Completely as hydrogen mixes with oxygen to become water … the orange is part of the living animal —Daniela Gioseffi
- Incomplete as a circus without clowns —Elyse Sommer
- Incomplete … like cabbage with all the flavor boiled out —Richard Brookhiser, Wall Street Journal book review, April 1, 1987
The simile refers to an author’s effort to serve up election information without politics. - Playing cards without money is like a meal without salt —Bertold Brecht
- A store without merchandise to sell is like a library without books to read —Anon
See Also: BUSINESS - (The antismoking zealots never tell you these things … colds, weight gain can happen to you after kicking the habit.) They [people giving incomplete information] are like Karl Maiden, who is always telling you how happy American Express will be to replace your stolen traveler’s checks but never bothers to tell you that if their serial numbers are stolen too, you’re out of luck —Russell Baker, New York Times Magazine, September 21, 1986
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms | Noun | 1. | completeness - the state of being complete and entire; having everything that is neededintegrity, unity, wholeness - an undivided or unbroken completeness or totality with nothing wanting; "the integrity of the nervous system is required for normal development"; "he took measures to insure the territorial unity of Croatia" incompleteness, rawness - the state of being crude and incomplete and imperfect; "the study was criticized for incompleteness of data but it stimulated further research"; "the rawness of his diary made it unpublishable" | | 2. | completeness - (logic) an attribute of a logical system that is so constituted that a contradiction arises if any proposition is introduced that cannot be derived from the axioms of the systemlogic - the branch of philosophy that analyzes inference |
Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content. |
|