complexe significabile (plural: complexe significa- bilia), also called complexum significabile, in medieval philosophy, what is signified only by a complexum (a statement or declarative sentence), by a that-clause, or by a dictum (an accusative ! infinitive construction, as in: ‘I want him to go’). It is analogous to the modern proposition. The doctrine seems to have originated with Adam de Wodeham in the early fourteenth century, but is usually associated with Gregory of Rimini slightly later. Complexe significabilia do not fall under any of the Aristotelian categories, and so do not ‘exist’ in the ordinary way. Still, they are somehow real. For before creation nothing existed except God, but even then God knew that the world was going to exist. The object of this knowledge cannot have been God himself (since God is necessary, but the world’s existence is contingent), and yet did not ‘exist’ before creation. Nevertheless, it was real enough to be an object of knowledge. Some authors who maintained such a view held that these entities were not only signifiable in a complex way by a statement, but were themselves complex in their inner structure; the term ‘complexum significabile’ is unique to their theories. The theory of complexe significabilia was vehemently criticized by late medieval nominalists. See also ABSTRACT ENTITY, PROPOSITIO. P.V.S.