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

There's no proof of his complicity in the crime.

2

: an instance of complicity

The two share a complicity she calls fraternal.

—Joan Dupont

Synonyms of complicity

• 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

Both revealed grave human rights abuses – torture, kidnapping, imprisonment and complicity in war crimes – and both were prosecuted rather than protected. —Kate Kenny, The Conversation, 15 Dec. 2025

Interrogating the complex politics of kinship and complicity, Vasudevan moves beyond simplistic narratives of Western saviors and Southern recipients. —Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 9 Dec. 2025

Foreign traffickers benefit from the complicity of corrupt state officials, with Kenya, Uganda, and the United Arab Emirates emerging as the top destinations for South Sudanese gold, Swissaid’s report said. —Alexander Onukwue, semafor.com, 8 Dec. 2025

In storytelling, the roads to pure evil or to victimhood are frequently clear-cut, but the journey of a person who is slowly recruited into complicity is a subtler thing. —The Atlantic, 4 Dec. 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