Distorted

How to spell distorted

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce distorted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does distorted mean?

1. adjectiveTwisted, warped, or pulled out of its true or natural shape or meaning.
2. verbTwisted something out of its proper shape, or misrepresented a fact or account.

Distorted in a sentence

• adjective

  The cheap headphones produced a distorted buzzing sound at high volume.

• verb

  The faulty amplifier distorted every note during the concert.

• adjective

  The funhouse mirror gave everyone a distorted reflection.

• verb

  The tabloid distorted her statement to create a scandal.

Where does distorted come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows from the Latin verb distorquere, which combined dis-, meaning 'apart' or 'awry', with torquere, meaning 'to twist'. Its past participle distortus literally described something that had been twisted out of its proper shape. English adopted the form 'distort' in the early sixteenth century, and 'distorted' followed naturally as its participle and adjective, used both for physically warped shapes and for facts that have been wrenched away from the truth. The same torquere root quietly powers a whole family of relatives, including 'torture', 'contort', 'torque', and even 'torment', all of which carry that core idea of twisting. Knowing that the middle of the word is 'tort', the twist, helps fix the spelling, since the trap is hearing an unstressed schwa and a soft ending where the firm 't' sounds belong.

How the word is built

• dis- (apart, awry)
• tort (from Latin torquere: to twist)
• -ed (past participle / adjective suffix)