as in deformed
to twist (something) out of a natural or normal shape or condition
the acrobat is able to contort his body so that it almost looks like a pretzel
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in distorted
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Recent Examples of contorted
Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly, 10 Sep. 2025
Mark Travers, Forbes.com, 7 Sep. 2025
Yet part of the force of it is that Michôd has not contorted Christy Martin’s life into some false arc; what was going on beneath her triumph is portrayed with a desperate and idiosyncratic honesty.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 6 Sep. 2025
Verb
Three-inch gashes had been ripped from both corners of her mouth nearly to the ears, forming a contorted, twisted smile.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly, 10 Sep. 2025
Adjective
Even an otherwise neutral comment can be contorted into a sarcastic retort, an insult or a counterattack.
—Mark Travers, Forbes.com, 7 Sep. 2025
Yet part of the force of it is that Michôd has not contorted Christy Martin’s life into some false arc; what was going on beneath her triumph is portrayed with a desperate and idiosyncratic honesty.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 6 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for contorted
Verb
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If your shrubs have distorted, yellowing, or curling leaves or their growth seems stunted, take a close look.—
Karen Brewer Grossman,
Southern Living,
2 Oct. 2025
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Instead, his big reveal on Monday offered families distorted science, false hope, and unproven and at times dangerous medical advice.—
Lisa Jarvis,
Mercury News,
25 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Notwithstanding its elaborately disordered presentation, the film’s more straightforwardly biographical material contains few surprises.—
Guy Lodge,
Variety,
20 Sep. 2025
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Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that advocates for child safety online, has found that a number of AI chatbots and companions can be prompted to encourage self-mutilation and disordered eating to teenage accounts.—
Matteo Wong,
The Atlantic,
18 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Both of the Yunxian skulls were deformed from millennia spent underground, but the second, known as Yunxian 2, was better preserved.—
Katie Hunt,
CNN Money,
25 Sep. 2025
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Some of her concerns exist because the pipeline sits in the open water of the Great Lakes and has been damaged multiple times by ship’s anchors, is subject to corrosion, and has been found to be bent and deformed by the extremely powerful currents in the Straits of Mackinac.—
Mike Shriberg,
The Conversation,
22 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Her dark brown bob was freshly trimmed and curled toward her face; the top brushed and styled over the left side of her head.—
Kaleigh Werner,
Footwear News,
2 Oct. 2025
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On Thursday, it was curled and blow-dried into a bouncy shag.—
Leah Dolan,
CNN Money,
2 Oct. 2025
Verb
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This is the cost of having been tortured in public.—
Romina Ruiz-Goiriena,
USA Today,
4 Oct. 2025
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Hoping to better understand the demand for smutty scares, Hitchcock and his wife, Alma Reville (Olivia Williams), spend an interminable evening at the theater surrounded by people throwing popcorn and making out while the topless woman onscreen is tortured and killed in a masked man’s dungeon.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
4 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Contorted.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/contorted. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.
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