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🔄 Deforming shape ⚖️ Making unfair
distortive

distortive

7.5
Making results unfair or wrong by changing normal conditions
  • adjective
  • /dɪˈstɔːrtɪv/
translation icon : distorsionante
  • The distortive representation of events can lead to misunderstandings among the public.

And we are seeing the consequences of three generations of of distortive teachings offered to young women in particular, but young men as well.

Examples

  • One of the central planks of our modest publishing enterprise has been the distortive effects of central banking on the larger economy—domestically and worldwide.

    Blog text (25)

  • I think that direct transfer payments, perhaps through a negative income tax, are preferable to a minimum wage increase because they are less distortive overall.

    Blog text (26)

  • And we are seeing the consequences of three generations of of distortive teachings offered to young women in particular, but young men as well.

    Megyn Kelly

  • Finally, reformers argue that the distortive effects of prison gerrymandering are not merely abstract or theoretical; they matter in policy terms.

    Academic text (2017)

  • So this sort of cues for those government job is I've come to believe a very distort as very distortive impact on the whole labour market.

  • As Martin Callanan said in his reply to the address, "the euro has always been a political project from the start." To refer to that project as "monetary union" is thus highly distortive in giving undue primacy to the economic over the political.

    Blog text (23)

  • In speaking of textual understanding, Gadamer believes that all understanding and interpretation are ongoing and have an open character, which can be construed as distortive only if we assume that a text possesses some meaning in itself that can be isolated from our prejudgments.

    Academic text (1992)

  • If the state uproots a prisoner from a community with which she shared a mutually reinforcing interest in representational equality, then its doing so triggers an obligation to either justify the distortive effects of that relocation or ameliorate them.

    Academic text (2017)

  • The study highlighted how distortive media coverage can bias people's perceptions of reality.

  • Her distortive comments about the situation only fueled further conflict among the group.

Synonyms

misleading
vsdistortive
148 4.4

Giving a wrong idea that makes people believe false things

focuses on causing bias or alteration rather than only wrong belief
misrepresentative
vsdistortive
1 8.3

To give a wrong idea of the real situation

causes change or bias that makes things unfair or not true
slanted
vsdistortive
1 6.2

Showing unfair support for one person or group

highlights bias and unfairness rather than mere factual error
slanty
vsdistortive
8.1

Giving unfair support to one side in a report or argument

is an informal variant with the same biased presentation

Antonyms

fair
∞ 1.0

Treating people equally and honestly

truthful
121 1.3

Always saying what really happened and not lying

How Misleading

misleading
148 4.4
distortive
7.5
biased
91 4.0

Surface Forms

distortive positive

Morphology

distortive = distort (transparent) = distort + ive

The adjective is a regular derivation from the verb 'distort' with '-ive', expressing 'causing or tending to distort', which maps clearly to the sense of producing bias or inaccuracy.

Etymology

Distortive comes from the verb distort, made of dis- 'apart' and an old Latin root torquere 'to twist'. So a distortive rule or action 'twists' the facts or the market, making things biased or not accurate.