| complement |
| Definition - A word, phrase, or clause that is needed to complete a sentence's meaning. |
|
Example - She looks ill. (In the above the word ill is a subject complement.) |
|
Etymology - The term derives from the Latin complementum, that which fills up or completes. |
|
Oxford English Dictionary - Its first citation in this sense is from 1874: "The infinitive with to may also take the place of a predicative complement." (tr. Maetzner's Eng. Gram. III. 21) |
