Complementable

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Able to be made complete or enhanced when combined with another thing that supplies what is missing
2. Describing something that can be brought to completion or improved by being paired with a suitable partner
3. Capable of being completed, rounded out, or made more effective through the addition of a complementary element

Etymology: "Complementable" is a plain formation: the adjective "complement" with the suffix "-able," meaning capable of being complemented or made complete by something else. The verb "complement" came from the Latin "complementum," a thing that fills up or completes, from "complere," to fill up. The word has a close relative, "complimentable," and the two are doublets, meaning they descend from the same source but took different paths into English. "Complement" and "compliment" both come from the same Latin root, yet one settled into the sense of completing and the other into praise, which is why "complimentable" (capable of being praised) and "complementable" (capable of being completed) look so alike while meaning different things.