Learn English – the difference between “complicated” and “complex”

adjectivesdifferencesword-choice

I can't understand: what's the difference between complicated and complex?

They seem to be used interchangeably. Are they actually different at all?

Best Answer

Complex is used to refer to the level of components in a system. If a problem is complex, it means that it has many components. Complexity does not evoke difficulty.

On the other hand, complicated refers to a high level of difficulty. If a problem is complicated, there might be or might not be many parts but it will certainly take a lot of hard work to solve.