Tortuous

Definition: Tortuous

Tortuous

Adjective

1. Highly involved or intricate; "the Byzantine tax structure"; "convoluted legal language"; "convoluted reasoning"; "intricate needlework"; "an intricate labyrinth of refined phraseology"; "the plot was too involved"; "a knotty problem"; "got his way by labyrinthine maneuvering"; "Oh, what a tangled web we weave"- Sir Walter Scott; "tortuous legal procedures"; "tortuous negotiations lasting for months".

2. Marked by repeated turns and bends; "a tortuous road up the mountain"; "winding roads are full of surprises"; "had to steer the car down a twisty track".

3. Not straightforward; "his tortuous reasoning".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "tortuous" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references)

Etymology: Tortuous \Tor"tu*ous\, adjective. [from Old English expression tortuos, from Latin expression tortuosus, from tortus twisting, winding, from torquere, tortum, to twist: compare to the French expression tortueux. See Torture.]. (references)

Synonyms: Tortuous

Concealment

Adjective: concealed; Verb: hidden; secret, recondite, mystic, cabalistic, occult, dark; cryptic, cryptical; private, privy, in petto, auricular, clandestine, close, inviolate; tortuous.

Convolution

Adjective: convoluted; winding, twisted; Verb: tortile, tortive; wavy; undated, undulatory; circling, snaky, snake-like, serpentine; serpent, anguill, vermiform; vermicular; mazy, tortuous, sinuous, flexuous, anfractuous, reclivate, rivulose, scolecoid; sigmoid, sigmoidal; spiriferous, spiroid;

Improbity

False-hearted, disingenuous; unfair, one-sided; double, double-hearted, double-tongued, double-faced; timeserving, crooked, tortuous,insidious, Machiavelian, dark, slippery; fishy; perfidious, treacherous, perjured.

Crosswords: Tortuous

Books

• Mozambique: The Tortuous Road to Democracy (reference)

• Price's Progress: The Tortuous Journey of a Roving Civil Engineer (reference)

• The Tortuous Serpent: An Occult Adventure (reference)

• Yemen: The Tortuous Quest for Unity, 1990-94 (Chatham House Papers (Unnumbered).) (reference)

  (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Woman is perfidious and tortuous.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Economic History

Panama

Vasco Nunez de Balboa's tortuous trek from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 1513 demonstrated that the isthmus was, indeed, the path between the seas, and Panama quickly became the crossroads and marketplace of Spain's empire in the New World. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Expressions using "tortuous": tortuous flow ♦ tortuous path. Additional references.

Albanian

i tërthortë (constructive, devious, indirect, oblique, roundabout, transversal), i pasinqertë (devious, disingenuous, hypocritical, insincere, left handed, phoney, phony), gjarpërues (devious, serpentine, sinuous, snaky, twisting, wandering, winding), dredha-dredha (anfractuous, curly, devious, sinuous, winding). (various references)

Arabic 

‏ملتو (circuitous, crooked, indirect, roundabout, winding), ‏متمعج (serpentine, sinuous, winding), ‏متعرج (meandrous, serpentine, sinuous, snaky, winding, zigzag). (various references)

Bulgarian 

обиколен (circuitous, oblique, roundabout), неискрен (disingenuous, false, feigned, hollow, hollow-hearted, insincere, lip, lip-deep, mealy mouthed, oblique, phoney, pretended, synthetic), заплетен (anfractuous, complex, convoluted, inextricable, intricate, involute, involved, knotty, labyrinthine, mazy, sinuous, tangly), лъкатушен (cranky, flexous, serpentine, sinuous, wandering, winding), изкривен (awry, cockeyed, crooked, curved, hooked, lop-sided, skew, squinting, wry), извит (arched, bended, cranked, crooked, curly, curve, curved, falcate, falciform, flexous, hooked, incurved, kinky, meandering, round, tortile, twisted). (various references)

Czech

zašmordchaný (confused), nepřímý (contributory, indirect, mediate, oblique, roundabout, vicarious), kroucený (wiggly), klikatý (devious, snaky, winding, zigzag), křivolaký (devious, oblique). (various references)

Farsi 

فریبکار (Japer), پیچاپیچ (Convoluted), پیچ وخم دار, غیرمستقیم (Devious, Indirect, Oblique, Sideway, Sinuous), درشکن . (various references)

Finnish

mutkikas (sinuous, winding), mutkainen (winding), kiemurteleva. (various references)

French

tortueux, sinueux. (various references)

German

umständlich (awkward, circuitous, circuitously, circumstantial, complex, complicated, detailed, devious, elaborate, fussy, involved, laborious, long winded, long-drawn-out, ornate, overelaborate, ponderous, roundabout, tedious), gewunden (convoluted, devious, flexuous, roundabout, serpentine, sinuous, sinuously, wandering, winded, winding, wreathed), gewickelt (lapped). (various references)

Greek 

καμπύλοσ (convex, curved), όχι ευθύσ, σκολιόσ (crooked), σκολιός (crooked, humped, uneven), στραβόσ (awry, blind, wry), περίπλοκος (complex, complicated, intricate), ελικώδησ (sinuate, winding), ελικοειδήσ (helical, sinuous, spiral, spiry, turbinal), ελικοειδής (spiral). (various references)

Hebrew 

מתפתל (serpentine, sinuous, winding), מפותל (convoluted, curved, twisted), עקלתון (crooked, curved, labyrinth, serpentine), עקלקל (crooked, curved, devious, meander). (various references)

Hungarian

tekervényes (anfractuous, circuitous, devious, encompassment, intricate). (various references)

Indonesian

berliku-liku (devious, winding, zigzag), berliku. (various references)

Italian

tortuoso (circuitous, devious, roundabout, wandering, winding). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

うつ伏せる (falling in a doze, heaving sea, meandering, Rascal!, roller, sinuous, swell, to lie face-down, undulation, Villain!, wave motion, winding, You wretch!, zigzag), 小難しい (fastidious, troublesome). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

うねうね (meandering, sinuous, winding, zigzag), �"むずかしい (fastidious, troublesome). (various references)

Manx

lhoobagh (arching, bending, bowing, coiled, convoluted, crooked, crooked morally, curved, curvilinear, faltering, inflexional, limber, plastic, pliable, serpentine, shifty, sinuous, snakiness, supple, terry, twisting, vermiculate, willowy, winding), camlaagagh (crook, crook person, illicit, morally crooked, obstinate, perverse), cam-jeeragh. (various references)

Pig Latin

ortuoustay.(various references)

Portuguese

tortuoso (anfractuous, bent, crooked, curved, devious, serpentine, sinuous, snaky, torturous, winding), sinuoso (anfractuous, bent, circuitous, curved, serpentine, sinuous, snaky, winding), desonesto (cambered, crooked, devious, dishonest, drossy, false, immodest, impure, knavish, light-fingered, low-down, nasty, shady, sharp, shifty, thievish, unchaste, unfair, unfaithful, untrustworthy), de difícil compreensão (abstruse). (various references)

Romanian

sinuos (flexuous, serpentine, sinuous, winding), nesincer (backhand, devious, disingenuous, double faced, hollow-hearted, insincere, insincerely, pecksniffian, truthless), cotit (meandering, sinuous, snaky, winding, zigzaggy), şerpuitor (flexuous, winding), şerpuit (meandering, snaky, winding), întortocheat (crooked, devious, serpentine, sinuous, winding), încurcat (daedal, difficult, embarrassed, foul, intricate, involved, matted, perplexed, perplexedly, puzzling, tangled, winding). (various references)

Russian 

извилистый (anfractuous, convoluted, cranky, devious, sinuate, sinuous, snaky, winding). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

zavojit (corkscrew, cranked, spiral, twisting, winding), vijugav (anfractuous, serpentine, sinuous, winding). (various references)

Spanish

tortuoso (anfractuous, circuitous, devious, discombobulated, snaky, winding). (various references)

Swedish

tillkrånglad, slingrig (sinuous, winding), slingrande (devious, flexuose, flexuous, serpentine, sinuous, wiggly, winding), krokig (bandy, bent, crooked, crookedness, curved, hooked, winding), krånglig (awkward, dodgy, troublesome), invecklad (complicated, convoluted, fancy, implex, intricate, involute, involuted). (various references)

Turkish

namussuz (dishonest, dishonorable, dishonourable, faithless, rascal, rascally, shady, unchaste, uncleanly), kıvrımlı (corrugated, crinkly, curled, curly, meandering, plaited, serpentine, sinuous, twisted, voluted), hileli (dishonest, false, fraudulent, sharp, trick, trickish, tricksy, tricky, twisty, unfair), eğri büğrü (crooked, gnarled, scratchy, screwed, skew, twisted, uneven), eğri (aslant, aslope, awry, bent, cambered, cockeyed, crooked, curve, graph, oblique, out of the straight, sinuous, skew, skewed, slanting, sloping, slouching, slouchy, trajectory, untrue, warped, wry), dolambaçlı (circuitous, circular, devious, indirect, labyrinthine, oblique, roundabout, serpentine, shuffling, sinuous, winding), dolaşık (circuitous, entangled, entwined, foul, kinky, mazy). (various references)

Ukrainian

ухильний (elusive, evasive, indirect, non committal), безчесний (dishonorable, dishonourable), покручений. (various references)

Vietnamese 

quanh co (anfractuous, crinkum-crankum, crooked, mazy, meanderingly, meandrine, oblique, sinuous, twisty), loanh quanh; xảo trá, khúc khuỷu (meanderingly, meandrine, sinuous). (various references)

Welsh

troellog (winding). (various references)

tortuosum, tortuosus. (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "tortuous": tortuously, tortuousness, tortuousnesses. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Tortuous" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Hortulus, orgulous, tortouos, tortous, Tortuosa, toruos, Triturus. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: surtout.

-2 letters: torous, trouts, tutors.

-3 letters: ottos, roost, roots, rotos, roust, routs, stour, stout, strut, sturt, toots, toros, torot, torso, torts, torus, tours, touts, trots, trout, trust, tutor, tutus.

-4 letters: oots, orts, otto, ours, oust, outs, root, roto, rots, rout, rust, ruts, soot, sort, sour, toot, toro, tors, tort, tost, tots, tour, tout, trot.

+1 letter: torturous.

+2 letters: autoroutes, fortuitous, roustabout, tortuously.

+3 letters: roustabouts, torturously.

+4 letters: fortuitously, futurologist, tortuousness.

+5 letters: futurologists, nonnutritious.