tortuous

adjective tor·tu·ous \ ˈtȯrch-wəs , ˈtȯr-chə- \

|Updated on: 17 Jun 2018

Examples: tortuous in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of tortuous

1 : marked by repeated twists, bends, or turns : winding

a tortuous path

2 a : marked by devious or indirect tactics : crooked, tricky

a tortuous conspiracy

b : circuitous, involved

the tortuous jargon of legal forms

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tortuously

adverb

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tortuousness

noun

See tortuous defined for English-language learners

See tortuous defined for kids

tortuous was our Word of the Day on 07/13/2014. Hear the podcast!

Examples of tortuous in a Sentence

a tortuous path up the mountain
a tortuous mountain road marked by numerous hairpin turns

Recent Examples of tortuous from the Web

Foreign investors have been pouring money into shares of the company, whose products are a household name in China and were once hailed for helping the Red Army survive the tortuous Long March of the 1930s.

— joanne chiu, WSJ, "Chinese Liquor Titan Kweichow Moutai Is Drinking Up Funds," 7 June 2018
The set looks tailor-made for a Hellcab update; what Bennett Fisher presents instead is a tortuous lecture about fanaticism and class and race relations in America.

— dmitry samarov, Chicago Reader, "Damascus attempts to tackle faith, politics, and race without a road map," 1 June 2018
The three bans have had a tortuous legal journey that has taken them before dozens of district court and appellate judges nominated by presidents from both major parties.

— Washington Post, "AP review: Judges split along party lines on travel ban," 3 May 2018
The roads are all tortuous and the houses are high up from the street, each with a garden of some sort in its small front yard.

— phoebe wall howard, Detroit Free Press, "Service Diary of a Corpsman: Roy L. Wall, LST 509," 28 May 2018
There’s a tortuous system of licenses and strict rules on capital flows, and nobody cares that local consumers get a lousy deal.

— Bloomberg.com, "China Quietly Rolled Out a Very Big Bang," 19 Apr. 2018
This installment examines the tortuous path of the Brady Bill, which imposed a waiting period and a system of background checks in order for gun purchases to be made.

— clyde haberman, New York Times, "Do Stronger Gun Laws Stand a Chance? It’s Been an Uphill Battle.," 29 Apr. 2018
Israel and Palestine loom large in the party’s tortuous relationship with Britain’s Jews.

— The Economist, "Labour’s problem with anti-Semitism," 15 Mar. 2018
The three bans have had a tortuous legal journey that has taken them before dozens of district court and appellate judges nominated by presidents from both major parties.

— sudhin thanawala, Fox News, "Is Trump right about judges' leanings? Maybe, review shows," 2 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'tortuous.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Be careful not to confuse tortuous with torturous. These two words are relatives-both ultimately come from the Latin verb torquere, which means "to twist," "to wind," or "to wrench"-but tortuous means "winding" or "crooked," whereas torturous means "painfully unpleasant." Something tortuous (such as a twisting mountain road) might also be torturous (if, for example, you have to ride up that road on a bicycle), but that doesn't make these words synonyms. The twists and turns that mark a tortuous thing can be literal ("a tortuous path" or "a tortuous river") or figurative ("a tortuous argument" or "a tortuous explanation"), but you should consider choosing a different descriptive term if no implication of winding or crookedness is present.

Origin and Etymology of tortuous

Middle English, from Middle French tortueux, from Latin tortuosus, from tortus twist, from torquēre to twist

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 15th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

tortuous Synonyms

TORTUOUS Defined for English Language Learners

tortuous

adjective

Definition of tortuous for English Language Learners

: having many twists and turns
: complicated, long, and confusing

TORTUOUS Defined for Kids

tortuous

adjective tor·tu·ous \ ˈtȯr-chə-wəs \

Definition of tortuous for Students

: having many twists and turns

a tortuous path

Medical Dictionary

tortuous

adjective tor·tu·ous \ ˈtȯrch-(ə-)wəs \

medical Definition of tortuous

: marked by repeated twists, bends, or turns

a tortuous blood vessel

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tortuosity

play \ˈtȯr-chə-ˈwäs-ət-ē\ noun, plural -ties

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torturously

adverb

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tortuous

Definition of tortuous

tortuously

tortuousness

tortuous was our Word of the Day on 07/13/2014. Hear the podcast!

Examples of tortuous in a Sentence

Recent Examples of tortuous from the Web

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Origin and Etymology of tortuous

tortuous Synonyms

Synonyms

Antonyms

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TORTUOUS Defined for English Language Learners

tortuous

Definition of tortuous for English Language Learners

TORTUOUS Defined for Kids

tortuous

Definition of tortuous for Students

Medical Dictionary

tortuous

medical Definition of tortuous

tortuosity

torturously

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