verb / noun · academic

complement

UK/ˈkɒmplɪment/US/ˈkɑːmplɪment/COM·ple·ment

Band 7+task1task2speaking

to add to something in a way that improves or completes it; something that completes or goes well with something

Examples

The new software complements the older system rather than replacing it.

Her research is a perfect complement to the theoretical work already available.

The colours of the room complement each other nicely.

Band 8 sentence

The qualitative interviews complement the statistical analysis, providing nuance to the population trends revealed by the data.

Collocations

  • complement each other
  • perfect complement

Word family

complementary adjectivecomplementation noun

Common mistakes

complimentcomplement

complement withcomplement

Say it for a higher band

5add to6supplement7+complement

Synonyms

supplement

enhance

Easily confused

compliment

She complimented him on his clear presentation.

Related words

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In Sublist 9

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