Words / C2

bi-ZANT-yn/bɪˈzæntaɪn/

Byzantine (often capital B) means excessively complicated, especially of rules, after late Byzantine politics: Byzantine procedures. Complicated is everyday; Kafkaesque (already in the dictionary) adds dreamlike oppression. The Byzantine Empire is the historical sense. Do not call a merely long form Byzantine.

Meaning

Excessively complicated, especially of rules or procedures; also of the Byzantine Empire.

Examples

• “A Byzantine reset path needed a password to request the password.”
• “A Byzantine reset path needed the password in order to request the password.”
• “Complicated is everyday. Kafkaesque is nightmarish as well as tangled. Capital B is usual in careful British prose. A three-page form is long; Byzantine means labyrinthine on purpose or by accretion.”

Good to know

Impossibly intricate (rules); often capital B. Everyday: complicated. Cousin: Kafkaesque (also oppressive). Not merely long.

Near in meaning

complicated

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