Other forms: complements
A complement is something that completes another and improves it. A perfect complement, the full complement, complement the dish.
It is spelled with an e in the middle and is not compliment with an i, which is praise — the trick is that a complement completes. The full complement means the whole number required, which is a ship's crew or a team at full strength.
1nouncomplementSomething that completes another and improves it.
“A glass of red wine is the perfect complement to this cheese.”
complement is a completion.
Latin complementum means that which fills up, from complere, to fill up. Complete is the same root.
Latin
complēmentum — that which fills up or completes
Middle English
complement
English, today
complement
Built from
From Middle English complement, from Latin complēmentum (“that which fills up or completes”), from compleō (“to fill up; to complete”) (English complete). a doublet of compliment. The verb is from the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA