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

During that time, the party promoted historical narratives about Polish victimhood and resistance to the Nazis, while delegitimizing research on Polish antisemitism or Poles who killed Jews, and even passed a law that outlawed accusing Poland or the Polish people of complicity in Nazi crimes. —Shira Li Bartov, Sun Sentinel, 22 July 2025

Silence in the face of injustice is not neutrality, it's called complicity. —Anna Kleiber, jsonline.com, 17 July 2025

The novel stages the slow conflation of complicity and guilt, the boundary between the two troublingly porous. —Katie Kitamura, Harpers Magazine, 16 July 2025

How many of our children and grandchildren will discover this as the Middle East conflict continues with our involvement and complicity? —Chicago Tribune, 25 June 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