different between tedious vs tortuous

English

Alternative forms

• tædious (archaic)
• teedyus

Etymology

Old French tedieus, from Late Latin taedi?sus, from Latin taedium (“weariness, tedium”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?ti?.d??s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?ti.di.?s/, /?ti.d??s/
• Rhymes: -i?di?s

Adjective

tedious (comparative more tedious, superlative most tedious)

1. Boring, monotonous, time-consuming, wearisome.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:wearisome

Derived terms

• tediously
• tediousness

Related terms

• tedium

Translations

Anagrams

• Outside, dies out, outside, side out, sudoite

English

Etymology

From Middle English tortuous, tortuose, from Anglo-Norman and Old French tortuos, from Latin tortu?sus, from tortus (“a twisting, winding”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?t??t??u??s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?t??t??u?s/

Adjective

tortuous (comparative more tortuous, superlative most tortuous)

1. (often figuratively) Twisted; having many turns; convoluted.
   • 2007 October 6, “Slogging on the Home Front”, editorial in The New York Times,

     It still takes almost half a year for the average veteran’s claim for disability benefits to be decided in a tortuous process that can involve four separate hearings.

   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, Volume 1, Porter & Coates, p. 243:

     The badger made his dark and tortuous hole on the side of every hill where the copsewood grew thick.
2. (astrology) Oblique; applied to the six signs of the zodiac (from Capricorn to Gemini) that ascend most rapidly and obliquely.
   • 1872, Walter William Skeat, Chaucer's A Treatise on the Astrolabe

     Infortunate ascendent tortuous.

3. (obsolete) Injurious; tortious.

Usage notes

• This term has strongly negative connotations, perhaps transferred from the similar-sounding adjective torturous.
• Not to be confused with the legal term tortious.

Related terms

Translations