complete complete (kəm-plētʹ) adjectiveAbbr. comp., cpl1. Having all necessary or normal parts, components, or steps; entire: a complete meal. 2. Botany. Having all principal parts, namely, the sepals, petals, stamens, and pistil or pistils. Used of a flower. 3. Having come to an end; concluded. 4. Absolute; total: “In Cairo I have seen buildings which were falling down as they were being put up, buildings whose incompletion was complete” (William H. Gass). 5. a. Skilled; accomplished: a complete musician. b. Thorough; consummate: a complete coward.verb, transitivecompleted, completing, completes1. To bring to a finish or an end: She has completed her studies. 2. To make whole, with all necessary elements or parts: A second child would complete their family. completeʹly adverb completeʹness noun compleʹtive adjectiveSynonyms: complete, close, end, finish, conclude, terminate. These verbs mean to bring or to come to a natural or proper stopping point. Complete suggests the final stage in bringing an undertaking to fruition: “Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime” (Reinhold Niebuhr). Close applies to the ending of something ongoing or continuing: The orchestra closed the concert with an encore. If there is a further falloff in ticket sales, the play will close. End emphasizes finality: We ended the meal with fruit and cheese. “Where laws end, tyranny begins” (William Pitt). Finish is sometimes interchangeable with complete: “Give us the tools, and we will finish the job” (Winston S. Churchill). Often, though, it suggests the addition of final details to what has already essentially been completed: I finished the pillowcase with a border of lace. Conclude adds to complete and close a sense of formality: Government representatives concluded tariff negotiations. The article concluded with a restatement of the major points presented. Terminate more specifically suggests reaching an established limit in time or space: The mayor terminated the press conference with a few words of thanks. The family lives on a dead-end street that terminates at a fence.Usage Note: Complete is sometimes held to be an absolute term like perfect or chief, which is not subject to comparison. Nonetheless, it can be qualified as more or less, for example. A majority of the Usage Panel accepts the example His book is the most complete treatment of the subject.
