"a complementary relation or situation," 1908, a term in physics, from complementary + -ity.
Entries linking to complementarity
complementary adj.
1620s, "ceremonious" (a sense now obsolete in this spelling of the word), from complement (n.) + -ary. Sense of "forming a complement, mutually completing each other's deficiencies," is attested by 1794, in reference to the calendar of the French Revolution; in reference to colors which in combination produce white light, by 1814. Earlier in the sense "completing, forming a complement" was complemental (c. 1600).
-ity
word-forming element making abstract nouns from adjectives and meaning "condition or quality of being ______," from Middle English -ite, from Old French -ete (Modern French -ité) and directly from Latin -itatem (nominative -itas), suffix denoting state or condition, composed of -i- (from the stem or else a connective) + the common abstract suffix -tas (see -ty (2)).
Roughly, the word in -ity usually means the quality of being what the adjective describes, or concretely an instance of the quality, or collectively all the instances; & the word in -ism means the disposition, or collectively all those who feel it. [Fowler]