Intricate

a. [Lat. intricatus, p. p. of intricare; It. intricato, intrigato, Sp. intrincado. See infra.] Entangled; involved; perplexed; complicated; obscure; as, we passed through intricate windings; we found the accounts intricate.

The nature of man is intricate. Burke.

Synonyms—INTRICATE, COMPLEX, COMPLICATED. A thing is complex when it is made up of parts; it is complicated when those parts are so many, or so arranged, as to make it difficult to grasp them; it is intricate when it has numerous windings and confused involutions which it is hard to follow out. Complexity puzzles; complication confounds; intricacy bewilders. What is complex must be resolved into its parts; what is complicated must be drawn out and developed; what is intricate must be unraveled.