Tortuous vs torturous
Tortuous means full of twists and turns, like a winding road or a very complicated process. Torturous means extremely painful, like torture.
Torturous is torture plus -ous, with the e dropped, so it keeps the r. Tortuous has no r there, and just twists.
tortuous adjective
Full of twists and turns, or so complicated that it is hard to follow.
- The bus crawled up a tortuous mountain road with a sheer drop on one side.
- The law passed only after a tortuous process of debate and revision.
torturous adjective
Extremely painful, causing suffering that feels like torture.
- After the accident she endured weeks of torturous physical therapy.
- The last mile of the race was torturous in the blazing heat.
Watch out
- The words sound different. Tortuous has three syllables, TOR-chu-us, and torturous has the r sound of torture in the middle.
- A long, twisting process can feel painful too, but tortuous describes the twists, while torturous describes the pain.
Test yourself
The river follows a blank path through the valley, bending back on itself again and again.
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tortuous. A path full of twists and turns is tortuous.
Sitting through the three-hour meeting with a toothache was blank.
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torturous. It was very painful, like torture.
The contract was written in blank language that no one could follow.
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tortuous. Twisted, hard-to-follow language is tortuous.
The climb down the mountain was blank on my injured knee.
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torturous. It was extremely painful, like torture, so torturous.
Full entries: tortuoustorturous