The terms "simple" and "complex" are related as antonyms, meaning they represent opposite concepts. "Simple" refers to something that is not complicated or has only one component or clause, whereas "complex" refers to something that is made up of multiple components or clauses, making it more complicated or intricate. For example, in sentence structure, a simple sentence contains one independent clause expressing a single thought, while a complex sentence contains one independent clause plus one or more dependent clauses to express more detailed relationships between ideas. Similarly, in other contexts such as organisms or words, simple refers to basic, single- element forms, while complex refers to assemblies or combinations of simpler elements. Thus, "simple" and "complex" describe a relationship of opposites that often appear together to contrast basic versus compound or straightforward versus intricate forms across language, biology, and other fields.
