Oh my word!!: Compliment, Complement, Supplement

Complement means something that makes an entity complete. The word functions as a noun and a verb but its adjectival form is complementary.

Samosa complements tea as an evening snack. Mother’s milk complements a baby’s dietary requirements for a healthy growth. Roti and dal complement each other as a basic meal in north India while rice and curry are taken together in south India.

Complementary medicine (alternative medicine) like acupuncture, homeopathy, etc adds to conventional and modern medical treatments.

Derivatives of complement (noun & verb) are complements (plural noun and verb singular), complemented, complementing, and complementary (adjective).

“After much searching it was our good fortune to secure the help of the renowned artist Madame Li Yun Sheng, whose creative talent and sensitive brushwork alone could properly complement Prabhupada’s beautiful descriptions of the autumn season” -Light of the Bhagavata by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Compliment refers to praise, applauding someone or something, giving regards, showing admiration or approval to someone or something, etc. Vidya Balan receives compliments from sari-makers for making the sari fashionable with her sense of style.

Derivatives of compliments are complimenting, complimented, and complimentary (adjective). Why not extending a compliment to someone when s/he dresses up smartly and elegantly? Is complimenting someone is tantamount to flattery?

“Everybody likes a compliment.” -Abraham Lincoln

“Hunger is never delicate; they who are seldom gorged to the full with praise may be safely fed with gross compliments, for the appetite must be satisfied before it is disgusted.” -Samuel Johnson

Indeed it is a good idea to compliment a friend or colleague or family member, when he or she deserves it.

Supplement means another one, additional, extra, accessory or additive, more; something that is added another to enhance it. The meaning of supplement in geometry is the amount by which an angle is less than 180 degrees.

Derivatives of supplement are supplementary, supplemented, supplementing, supplemental (adjective), supplementally (adverb) and supplementation (noun).

Teachers often have given supplementary materials to the students in the classroom so they can get a comprehensive understanding of the subject. It is common in middle class families of India for the husband and wife to work in order to supplement the household incomes. Many newspapers give one or two complementary supplements to the newspaper. Yet it is hard to make the youth buy the newspaper as they prefer digital media on their smartphones.