complicity

noun

com·​plic·​i·​ty kəm-ˈpli-s(ə-)tē 

plural complicities

1

: association or participation in or as if in a wrongful act

arrested for complicity in the crime

2

: an instance of complicity

The two share a complicity she calls fraternal.

—Joan Dupont

Synonyms

• conspiracy
• collusion
• connivance

Examples of complicity in a Sentence

There's no proof of her complicity in the murder.

He acted with his brother's complicity.

Recent Examples on the Web

Leni Riefenstahl, although briefly kept under house arrest by French occupation forces and tried four times by denazification courts, was never formally convicted of complicity in the crimes of the Nazis. —Daniel Jonah Wolpert, NPR, 8 Sep. 2025

His complicity with the know-how behind making clothes has been a defining feature of his career, leading him to Italy, his business partners, and the factory in Concordia, Italy, that turns out his signature label. —Miles Socha, Footwear News, 4 Sep. 2025

Themes span from how inaction and silence can result in complicity, and how the system turns against those who attempt to change it from within. —Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 29 Aug. 2025

Hasan would go on to sue the UN for complicity in war crimes committed in Srebrenica. —Seema Jilani august 29, Literary Hub, 29 Aug. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French complicité, borrowed from New Latin complicitāt-, complicitās, formed from Late Latin complic-, complex "fellow-participant, partner, accomplice" and Latin -itāt-, -itās -ity, probably after Late Latin duplicitās duplicity — more at complice

Note: The formation of the word is peculiar in that Latin -itāt-, -itās, along with its descendants and borrowings, is rarely added to nouns. Outside of the dictionaries of Thomas Blount and Elisha Coles, complicity is rare to non-existent in English text before the later eighteenth century, when its adoption was probably stimulated by French complicité.

First Known Use

circa 1656, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for complicity

• basicity
• chronicity
• cyclicity
• duplicity
• ethnicity
• facticity
• felicity
• helicity
• plasticity
• publicity
• rusticity
• simplicity

Kids Definition

complicity

noun

com·​plic·​i·​ty kəm-ˈplis-ət-ē 

plural complicities

: association or participation in a wrongful act