A complement is something that completes something else. Complement may refer specifically to:

The arts

Complement (music) In music theory, ''complement'' refers to either traditional interval complementation, or the aggregate complementation of twelve-tone and serialism. In interval complementation a complement is the interval which, when added to the original in ...

, an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-class collections into complementary sets *

Complementary color Complementary colors are pairs of colors which, when combined or mixed, cancel each other out (lose hue) by producing a grayscale color like white or black. When placed next to each other, they create the strongest contrast for those t ...

, in the visual arts

Biology and medicine

Complement system The complement system, also known as complement cascade, is a part of the immune system that enhances (complements) the ability of antibodies and phagocytic cells to clear microbes and damaged cells from an organism, promote inflammation, and ...

(immunology), a cascade of proteins in the blood that form part of innate immunity *

Complementary DNA In genetics, complementary DNA (cDNA) is DNA synthesized from a single-stranded RNA (e.g., messenger RNA (mRNA) or microRNA (miRNA)) template in a reaction catalyzed by the enzyme reverse transcriptase. cDNA is often used to express a spec ...

, DNA reverse transcribed from a mature mRNA template *

Complementarity (molecular biology) In molecular biology, complementarity describes a relationship between two structures each following the lock-and-key principle. In nature complementarity is the base principle of DNA replication and transcription as it is a property shared ...

, a property whereby double stranded nucleic acids pair with each other *

Complementation (genetics) In genetics, complementation occurs when two strains of an organism with different homozygous recessive mutations that produce the same mutant phenotype (for example, a change in wing structure in flies) have offspring that express the wild- ...

, a test to determine if independent recessive mutant phenotypes are caused by mutations in the same gene or in different genes

Grammar and linguistics

Complement (linguistics) In grammar, a complement is a word, phrase, or clause that is necessary to complete the meaning of a given expression. Complements are often also arguments (expressions that help complete the meaning of a predicate). Predicative, subject and ...

, a word or phrase having a particular syntactic role ** Subject complement, a word or phrase adding to a clause's subject after a linking verb * Phonetic complement * Complementary, a type of opposite in lexical semantics (sometimes called an antonym)

Mathematics

Algebra

Complement (group theory) In mathematics, especially in the area of algebra known as group theory, a complement of a subgroup ''H'' in a group ''G'' is a subgroup ''K'' of ''G'' such that :G = HK = \ \text H\cap K = \. Equivalently, every element of ''G'' has a unique expr ...

* Complementary subspaces *

Orthogonal complement In the mathematical fields of linear algebra and functional analysis, the orthogonal complement of a subspace ''W'' of a vector space ''V'' equipped with a bilinear form ''B'' is the set ''W''⊥ of all vectors in ''V'' that are orthogonal to every ...

Schur complement In linear algebra and the theory of matrices, the Schur complement of a block matrix is defined as follows. Suppose ''p'', ''q'' are nonnegative integers, and suppose ''A'', ''B'', ''C'', ''D'' are respectively ''p'' × ''p'', ''p'' × ''q'', ''q'' ...

Algorithms

Complement (complexity) In computational complexity theory, the complement of a decision problem is the decision problem resulting from reversing the ''yes'' and ''no'' answers. Equivalently, if we define decision problems as sets of finite strings, then the complement of ...

, relating to decision problems and complexity classes * Complement operator (regular expressions) *

Method of complements In mathematics and computing, the method of complements is a technique to encode a symmetric range of positive and negative integers in a way that they can use the same algorithm (hardware) for addition throughout the whole range. For a given num ...

, in computer science ** Radix complement ** Diminished radix complement **

Ones' complement The ones' complement of a binary number is the value obtained by inverting all the bits in the binary representation of the number (swapping 0s and 1s). The name "ones' complement" (''note this is possessive of the plural "ones", not of a sin ...

Two's complement Two's complement is a mathematical operation to reversibly convert a positive binary number into a negative binary number with equivalent (but negative) value, using the binary digit with the greatest place value (the leftmost bit in big- endian ...

Discrete mathematics

Complement graph In the mathematical field of graph theory, the complement or inverse of a graph is a graph on the same vertices such that two distinct vertices of are adjacent if and only if they are not adjacent in . That is, to generate the complement of a ...

Self-complementary graph In the mathematical field of graph theory, a self-complementary graph is a graph which is isomorphic to its complement. The simplest non-trivial self-complementary graphs are the path graph and the cycle graph. There is no known characterizatio ...

, a graph which is isomorphic to its complement *

Complemented lattice In the mathematical discipline of order theory, a complemented lattice is a bounded lattice (with least element 0 and greatest element 1), in which every element ''a'' has a complement, i.e. an element ''b'' satisfying ''a'' ∨ ''b''& ...

Geometry

Complementary angles In Euclidean geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays, called the '' sides'' of the angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the ''vertex'' of the angle. Angles formed by two rays lie in the plane that contains the rays. Angles a ...

Knot complement In mathematics, the knot complement of a tame knot ''K'' is the space where the knot is not. If a knot is embedded in the 3-sphere, then the complement is the 3-sphere minus the space near the knot. To make this precise, suppose that ''K'' is a ...

* Complement of a point, the dilation of a point in the

centroid In mathematics and physics, the centroid, also known as geometric center or center of figure, of a plane figure or solid figure is the arithmetic mean position of all the points in the surface of the figure. The same definition extends to any ...

of a given triangle, with ratio −1/2

Logic

Complement (set theory) In set theory, the complement of a set , often denoted by (or ), is the set of elements not in . When all sets in the universe, i.e. all sets under consideration, are considered to be members of a given set , the absolute complement of is th ...

Complementary event In probability theory, the complement of any event ''A'' is the event ot ''A'' i.e. the event that ''A'' does not occur.Robert R. Johnson, Patricia J. Kuby: ''Elementary Statistics''. Cengage Learning 2007, , p. 229 () The event ''A'' and ...

in probability *

Logical complement In logic, negation, also called the logical complement, is an operation that takes a proposition P to another proposition "not P", written \neg P, \mathord P or \overline. It is interpreted intuitively as being true when P is false, and false ...

Bitwise complement In computer programming, a bitwise operation operates on a bit string, a bit array or a binary numeral (considered as a bit string) at the level of its individual bits. It is a fast and simple action, basic to the higher-level arithmetic operati ...

* Complements in

boolean algebra In mathematics and mathematical logic, Boolean algebra is a branch of algebra. It differs from elementary algebra in two ways. First, the values of the variables are the truth values ''true'' and ''false'', usually denoted 1 and 0, whereas i ...

Other uses

Complementary experiments In physics, two experimental techniques are often called complementary if they investigate the same subject in two different ways such that two different (ideally non-overlapping) properties or aspects can be investigated. For example, X-ray scatter ...

, in physics * Complement good (economics), a good often consumed together with another good * Ship's complement, the number of persons in a ship's company