elaborate

elaborate

adjective

Definition of ELABORATE

1

made or done with great care or with much detail <elaborate festivities for the 200th anniversary of the town's founding>

Synonyms complex, complicated, detailed, fancy, intricate, involved, sophisticated

Related Words elegant, exquisite, grand, magnificent, ornate, splendid; chichi, extravagant, exuberant, fancified, flamboyant, frilly, gimmicked (up), grandiose, ostentatious, overwrought, showy, souped-up; Byzantine, convoluted, involute, involuted, labyrinthian, labyrinthine

Near Antonyms modest, plain, plain-Jane, plain-vanilla, uncomplicated; bald, bare, naked, unadorned, undecorated, unvarnished

Antonyms no-frills, simple, unfancy, unsophisticated

2

including many small descriptive features <the elaborate world known as Middle Earth that J.R.R. Tolkien created in his richly imagined novels>

Synonyms blow-by-blow, circumstantial, elaborate, full, minute, particular, particularized, thorough

Related Words enumerated, inventoried, itemized, listed, numerated; delineated, specific, specified; abundant, copious; comprehensive, encyclopedic, exhausting, exhaustive, inclusionary, inclusive, in-depth, omnibus, panoramic, thoroughgoing; accurate, correct, exact, precise; complete, entire, replete; distinct, explicit, sharp; mapped (out); descriptive, graphic (also graphical), picturesque, vivid

Near Antonyms brief, compact, concise, crisp, pithy, short, succinct, terse; abbreviated, abridged, curtailed, cut, pruned, shortened, trimmed; ambiguous, indeterminate, nebulous, nondescript, sketchy, vague; bird's-eye, broad, general, nonspecific, overall, unspecified

Antonyms compendious, summary

3

having many parts or aspects that are usually interrelated <plans for a huge mall that will actually be an elaborate center for sports, entertainment, and shopping>

Synonyms baroque, byzantine, complicate, complicated, convoluted, daedal, elaborate, intricate, involute, involved, knotty, labyrinthian, labyrinthine, sophisticated, tangled

Related Words overcomplex, overcomplicated; composite, compound, heterogeneous, mixed, multibranched, multifaceted, multifarious, multipart, varied; challenging, difficult, tough; impenetrable, incomprehensible, inexplicable, Kafkaesque, unfathomable, unintelligible

Near Antonyms oversimplified, simplified, simplistic; homogeneous, uniform, unvaried

Antonyms noncomplex, noncomplicated, plain, simple, uncomplicated