adjective
1. in a confused mass (Freq. 5)
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pushed back her tangled hair
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the tangled ropes
• Ant: ↑untangled
• Similar to:
↑afoul, ↑foul, ↑fouled, ↑enmeshed, ↑intermeshed, ↑entangled, ↑knotty, ↑snarled, ↑snarly, ↑matted, ↑rootbound, ↑thrown, ↑thrown and twisted
2. highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious (Freq. 2)
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the Byzantine tax structure
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Byzantine methods for holding on to his chairmanship
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convoluted legal language
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convoluted reasoning
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the plot was too involved
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a knotty problem
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got his way by labyrinthine maneuvering
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"Oh, what a tangled web we weave"- Sir Walter Scott
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tortuous legal procedures
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tortuous negotiations lasting for months
• Syn: ↑Byzantine, ↑convoluted, ↑involved, ↑knotty, ↑tortuous
• Similar to: ↑complex
• Derivationally related forms: ↑tortuousness (for: ↑tortuous), ↑knottiness (for: ↑knotty)
Useful english dictionary. 2012.