torturous vs tortuous :

torturous or tortuous

A path with a confusing proliferation of turns is tortuous (from a French root meaning “twisted”). But “torturous” (meaning painful or unpleasant, like torture) is very frequently confused with it. So often has “tortuous logic” (tangled, twisted logic) been misspelled as “torturous logic” that it has given rise to a now independent form with its own meaning, “tortured logic.” Few people object to the latter; but if you want to describe your slow progress along a twisting path, the word you want is “tortuous.”

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Definitions

  • s  extremely painful

  • s  highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious
    tortuous legal procedures
    tortuous negotiations lasting for months
  • s  marked by repeated turns and bends
    a tortuous road up the mountain
  • s  not straightforward
    his tortuous reasoning
News & Articles

  • Here Is $250,000 Worth of Speeches, Thank Us Later
    While you waste the last drips of this Friday afternoon at your desk, just know there's someone out there who is much more famous than you, is much less deserving than you, and gets paid more than some people make a year to talk about motivational things for about half an hour. The gory, torturous details are all in the latest issue of The New Republic.
    June 14, 2013 - The Atlantic Wire via Yahoo! News
  • Sooners fall short of College World Series
    Oklahoma’s season ended in a torturous manner Saturday night. LSU just kept piling on runs and a crowd of over 11,000 at Alex Box Stadium reveled in every one of them.
    June 11, 2013 - Tahlequah Daily Press
  • Sooners fall short of College World Series
    Oklahoma’s season ended in a torturous manner Saturday night. LSU just kept piling on runs and a crowd of over 11,000 at Alex Box Stadium reveled in every one of them.
    June 11, 2013 - Tahlequah Daily Press

  • Coyotes decision expected within two weeks
    The long, tortuous ownership saga of the Phoenix Coyotes is entering its final phase.
    June 13, 2013 - ESPN
  • Big issues decided by small groups of legislators as the NH lawmaking session winds up
    CONCORD – Several grand bargains between House Democratic and Senate Republican leaders are needed before this 2013 session can come to a close. We’re used to the tortuous process that is legislating in New Hampshire, where every lawmaker without pedigree gets a clean shot at passing, killing or changing at bill to beyond recognition. Now we are heading into that uncomfortable period when it’s ...
    June 10, 2013 - The Nashua Telegraph
  • Big issues decided by small groups of legislators as the NH lawmaking session winds up
    CONCORD – Several grand bargains between House Democratic and Senate Republican leaders are needed before this 2013 session can come to a close. We’re used to the tortuous process that is legislating in New Hampshire, where every lawmaker without pedigree gets a clean shot at passing, killing or changing at bill to beyond recognition. Now we are heading into that uncomfortable period when it’s ...
    June 10, 2013 - The Nashua Telegraph