tortuous
8
8.1
- adjective
- /ˈtɔrʧuəs/
- The hiker carefully followed the tortuous trail that wound up the steep mountain.
- tortuous path
- tortuous process
- follow a tortuous path
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Watch on YouTubeMy profession shares with you that mission, the always arduous, often tortuous, and yet essential pursuit of truth.
- My profession shares with you that mission, the always arduous, often tortuous, and yet essential pursuit of truth.
- So in that case, if you get a maze of tortuous lines, these in general indicate forgery.
Examples
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After a tortuous debate, they finally reached a consensus on the proposal.
-
The story of the nearly thirteen years of UN sanctions on Iraq is long and tortuous.
Academic text (2004) -
But it is only one step on a much longer and more tortuous path.
Academic text (2007) -
Their efforts were long and tortuous but ultimately rewarded with a measure of success.
Academic text (1992) -
After that brief, tortuous encounter, I rarely saw my old best friend again.
Fiction book (1997) -
All of these claims have now succeeded, albeit only after long and tortuous litigation.
Academic text (2017) -
Here, a tortuous zigzagging trail known as the Serpent Path makes its way to the top.
-
To enter the housing past the slinger, the water must follow a tortuous route through these overlapping surfaces.
Academic text (1995) -
Thus, throughout the CIS, the road to democracy will necessarily be long, winding, and often tortuous.
Academic text (2004) -
Val guides the truck down a tortuous, rocky, almost impassable trail.
Fiction book (1990)
Synonyms
∞
1.6
Not easy to do or understand
∞
5.4
Difficult to understand or deal with because it has many connected parts
283
3.9
Difficult to do because it has hidden problems
37
2.7
Not straight and turning many times like a mountain road
32
8.6
Very complicated and hard to follow, often not needed
20
6.8
Very complicated and hard to follow, like rules or relationships
19
6.6
Complicated and hard to understand
12
6.4
Difficult to understand
10
4.7
A road or story with many bends and sudden changes
9
8.4
Taking a longer, indirect way instead of a direct route
8
7.6
Winding and twisting like a snake
8
3.7
Having many bends and turns like a winding road
6
9.8
Very complex and difficult to understand, often about systems and rules
4
9.2
Having many parts that are hard to follow like a maze
4
8.6
Very difficult to solve, cleverly made to confuse people
3
9.9
Extremely difficult problem that seems impossible to solve, like a tangled knot
1
8.1
Difficult to solve or understand, often about problems
1
9.6
A plan, story or place with many twisting parts that confuse people
1
5.7
Full of confusing, twisting paths that are hard to find your way through
1
6.2
More complex than it needs to be
1
3.6
Having many curves like a winding road
1
8.9
Having many twisting passages that are hard to find your way through
A path or road that has many twists and turns
Very hard to understand because it is complicated
Full of many tangled parts that are hard to follow
Antonyms
How Winding
Surface Forms
Morphology
tortuous = tort + ous
Formed from the combining root 'tort-' (meaning 'twist') plus the productive adjectival suffix '-ous'; because the root 'tort-' is not a standalone modern English word, the relation is only partially obvious to average learners.
Etymology
Tortuous comes from the Latin verb torquere, which means 'to twist'. Like torture and torque, it carries the idea of twisting, so a tortuous road or argument is full of twists and not straightforward.