Complicated or detailed parts of something that are hard to understand or work through.
From Latin 'intricatus,' meaning tangled or complicated, derived from 'in-' (in) plus 'tricae' (tricks or tangles). The meaning evolved from something literally tangled to anything figuratively complex or puzzling.
The word 'intricate' literally meant 'tangled up' in Latin—so when you talk about the intricacies of something like chess or DNA, you're actually saying it's as twisted and tangled as a knot!
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