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I am looking for the word to complete the following sentence

"Simplicity and sophistication are not necessarily _"

Meaning simplicity doesn't preclude sophistication.

Edit: I am not looking for something that means opposite, they are not opposites of each other obviously. I am looking for a word which means presence of something doesn't rule out the presence of the other( like presence of high iron rules out anemia ).

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    Mutually exclusive.
    – Daniel
    Jan 22, 2012 at 1:59
  • @Danielδ single word :). Something similar to oxymoron i guess.
    – Surya
    Jan 22, 2012 at 2:03
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    @Surya - sometimes two words are better than one.
    – Matt E. Эллен
    Jan 22, 2012 at 10:52
  • Simplicity and sophistication are orthogonal. Unfortunately, orthogonal is unlikely to be in the average person's vocabulary.
    – MetaEd
    Jan 23, 2012 at 21:35

3 Answers 3

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Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --Leonardo da Vinci

Simplicity and sophistication are not necessarily incompatible.

Simplicity and sophistication are not necessarily contradictory.

Simplicity and sophistication are not necessarily opposites.

Simplicity and sophistication are not necessarily antithetical.

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  • I never heard X and Y are paradoxical used in that sense.
    – FumbleFingers
    Jan 22, 2012 at 14:16
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Simplicity and sophistication are not necessarily incompatible.

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mutually exclusive. disjoint. separate. opposed. (and contradictory.)

Set theory's disjoint is probably the least vulnerable to misinterpretation here.

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    Actually I think most people would probably say mutually exclusive in this particular context, and incompatible in many others. Although I'd understand disjoint, it's a rather odd choice of word - I'd probably think more about the speaker's vocabulary than his meaning.
    – FumbleFingers
    Jan 22, 2012 at 3:51
  • Yes, you always have to consider your audience. I've been discussing a lot of discrete mathematics these past few weeks.
    – Wayfaring Stranger
    Jan 22, 2012 at 4:04
  • haha - I knew it! A mathematician's vocabulary always gives him away! :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Jan 22, 2012 at 4:05

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