different between tortuous vs distort

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

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin distortum, past participle of distorque? (“to twist, torture, distort”)

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /d?s?t??t/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d?s?t??t/
• Rhymes: -??(?)t

Verb

distort (third-person singular simple present distorts, present participle distorting, simple past and past participle distorted)

1. (transitive) To bring something out of shape, to misshape.
2. (intransitive, ergative) To become misshapen.
3. (transitive) To give a false or misleading account of

   In their articles, journalists sometimes distort the truth.

Synonyms

• (to bring something out of shape): deform

Derived terms

• distorter

Related terms

• distorted (adjective)
• distortion

Translations

Adjective

distort (comparative more distort, superlative most distort)

1. (obsolete) Distorted; misshapen.