You searched for: “tortuous”
tortuous (adjective), more tortuous, most tortuous
1. A reference to something that has many turns or bends: There are some mountain passes which are tortuous for drivers because of the multitudes of winding curves that exist.

Tortuous reasoning refers to a person's logical thinking which goes in different directions from what some might consider normal or acceptable.

2. Descriptive of anything that is extremely complex or intricate: Some legal arguments presented in court trials can be very tortuous, making them very difficult to understand by those who are not lawyers.
3. Pertaining to being devious or deceitful: Thomas was not very straightforward and he was quite tortuous as he tried to make his wife believe that he loved her even though she knew that he was having a relationship with another woman.
4. Etymology: from Latin tortuosus, from tortus, "twisting, a twist, a winding"; from Latin torquere, "to twist".
Full of twists or curves and winding in different directions.
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This entry is located in the following units: -ous, -ious, -eous (page 21) tors-, tort-, -tort, tortu-, torqu- (page 4)
tortuous, torturous
tortuous (TOR choo uhs) (adjective)
1. Having or marked by repeated turns or bends; winding or twisting: "We drove on a tortuous road through the mountains."
2. Not straightforward; circuitous; devious: "The story had a tortuous plot."

"The politician had so much tortuous reasoning that we simply could not believe anything she said."

3. Highly involved; complex: "There were so many tortuous legal procedures that it took more than a year before there was a final decision."
torturous (TOR chuhr uhs) (adjective )
1. Of, relating to, or causing torture: "It was a torturous decision to decide not to go skiing in the mountains this winter."
2. Twisted; strained: "The mountain roads were torturous and required careful attention in order to drive safely."

Although tortuous and torturous both come from the Latin word torquere, "to twist", their primary meanings are distinct.

Tortuous means "twisting" (a tortuous road) or by extension "complex" or "devious."

Torturous refers primarily to torture and the pain associated with it; however, torturous also can be used in the sense of "twisted" or "strained", and tortured is an even stronger synonym; such as, "tortured reasoning".

This entry is located in the following units: Confusing Words Clarified: Group T; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. + (page 5) tors-, tort-, -tort, tortu-, torqu- (page 4)
Word Entries at Get Words: “tortuous”
tortuous, more tortuous, most tortuous
A reference to something that has many turns or bends going in different directions; pertaining to being devious or deceitful. (1)
This entry is located in the following unit: Word a Day Revisited Index of Cartoons Illustrating the Meanings of Words (page 77)