Meaning & use
byzantine
Last updated
Excessively complicated, intricate, or convoluted, especially in a way that makes something hard to understand or navigate.
See it in a sentence
Getting a permit required navigating a byzantine maze of forms and approvals.
The company's byzantine management structure made it unclear who was responsible for anything.
A note on using this word
When capitalized, "Byzantine" refers to the historical Byzantine Empire; lowercase "byzantine" describes needless complexity, especially in bureaucracy.
Words with a similar meaning
convolutedlabyrinthine
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
straightforwardsimple
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