a sentence consisting of an independent clause and one or more subordinate clauses. Subordinate clauses usually begin with a subordinating conjunction like ‘because’, ‘as’, or ‘when’. For example, ‘As the 19th century came to an end, gold was discovered in Alaska and the Yukon’ is a complex sentence.
Synonyms and related words
Types and forms of word, clause or sentence
accusative
adjunct
allomorph
complex sentence
noun countable linguistics
US /ˌkɑmpleks ˈsentəns/
Word Forms
singular
complex sentence
plural
complex sentences
DEFINITIONS1
1
a sentence consisting of an independent clause and one or more subordinate clauses. Subordinate clauses usually begin with a subordinating conjunction like “because”, “as”, or “when”. For example, “As the 19th century came to an end, gold was discovered in Alaska and the Yukon” is a complex sentence.