Complain

How to spell complain

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce complain

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does complain mean?

1. verbTo express dissatisfaction, annoyance, or a grievance about something.

Complain in a sentence

• Several residents began to complain about the constant noise from the building site.

• If the delivery arrives damaged again, she intends to complain to the manager directly.

Where does complain come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin verb plangere, which literally meant 'to beat' or 'to strike', and in particular 'to beat one's own breast' as a public gesture of grief. With the intensifying prefix com- it became the Late Latin complangere, 'to lament loudly', and the sense shifted from physical mourning to the verbal expression of pain, sorrow, or grievance. English took it in during the 1300s from the Old French complaindre, and over time the meaning softened from heartfelt lament to the everyday act of voicing dissatisfaction. The same plangere root survives in the more dramatic English word 'plaintive', meaning sorrowful, and in 'plaintiff', the person who brings a grievance to court. A useful spelling anchor is the buried word 'plain' in the middle: complain ends in -plain, not -plane.

How the word is built

• com- (intensive prefix)
• plain (from Latin plangere: to lament, to beat the breast in grief)