Makes something more difficult to understand or deal with by adding extra factors or confusion.
From Latin 'complicare,' combining 'com-' (with, together) and 'plicare' (to fold). The image is of folding things together until they become tangled.
The root meaning of 'plicare' means 'to fold'—so 'complicates' literally means 'folds things together,' which perfectly captures how messy situations tangle multiple issues into one knot!
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