complicit

adjective

com·​plic·​it kəm-ˈpli-sət 

: helping to commit a crime or do wrong in some way

He was complicit in the cover-up.

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Complicit and Its Accomplices

Complicit is a relatively recent addition to English vocabulary, arriving in the mid-1800s. It is a back-formation from complicity “association or participation in a wrongful act,” which came straight from a French word of the same meaning, complicité, in the 1600s. The oldest English word in this family is the now-obsolete complice (pronounced /COMP-liss/)—defined as “an associate or accomplice especially in crime”—which dates back to the 1400s, when it came from French. These words ultimately derive from the Latin verb meaning “to fold together,” complicare, formed by combining com- (meaning “with,” “together,” or “jointly”) and the verb plicare, meaning “to fold.”

This literal meaning evolved into a figurative one: the definition of complicit, “helping to commit a crime or do wrong,” describes individuals who are “folded together” metaphorically. Complicity and the its cousins accomplice, complicitous, and complice are all part of this gang.

Complicare, in a second of its Latin senses, “to twist together,” is the root of another English word, complicate, which originally meant “to unite intimately by intertwining.” In this case, the idea of things “twisted together” makes sense as an image of something composed of many elements, that is, something complicated. The -pli- of these words is from plicare (“to fold”), which is also the root of ply, the verb meaning “to twist together” or the noun meaning “one of several layers.”

Other words that derive from plicare are also illuminated by their etymologies: explicit “revealed without ambiguity” ultimately comes from Latin explicare, meaning “to unfold,” while implicit, meaning “implied,” descends from a Latin verb whose roots literally mean “to fold in.”

Examples of complicit in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Not a few progressive-minded writers are complicit. —Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 16 Apr. 2024

And since for Tynion horror is so personal, what has Tynion been complicit in? —Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Apr. 2024

On Sunday, the East Bay Times printed a letter to the editor that argued, in essence, that Donald Trump should not be prosecuted for real estate fraud because the lender was complicit in the scheme. —Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 16 Apr. 2024

Woods cast Iran as a frequent and reckless violator of international law that was complicit in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. —Matt Viser, Washington Post, 15 Apr. 2024

Some of us felt complicit in contributing to and financially benefiting from a culture that did not respect us. —Amy Dubois Barnett, Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2024

Certainly, other people were complicit in keeping his secret—nearly three dozen, in fact: The story of the Stuart case holds that much of the world was shocked when the truth came out that Chuck was the real killer. —Seyward Darby, Longreads, 19 Mar. 2024

Harry, actor Hugh Grant and other claimants now allege that Murdoch and other media executives were complicit in a scheme to conceal and destroy evidence of News Group Newspapers’ misconduct. —Christi Carras, Los Angeles Times, 22 Mar. 2024

Through self-immolation, Bushnell made a desperate plea: Don’t be complicit in genocide, act now. —Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 22 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

back-formation from complicity, probably after explicit, implicit

Note: Strictly speaking, the derivation of complicit from complicity is not a back-formation, unless -y is taken as the suffix -y entry 2, which seems unlikely. The derivation presumably depends on the acceptability of complicit beside the established words explicit and implicit. A regularly formed adjective derivative of complicity is complicitous.

First Known Use

1861, in the meaning defined above