| English Dictionary |
TORTUOUS
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| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does tortuous mean?
• TORTUOUS (adjective)
The adjective TORTUOUS has 3 senses:
1. highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious
2. marked by repeated turns and bends
3. not straightforward
Familiarity information: TORTUOUS used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious
Synonyms:
Byzantine; convoluted; involved; knotty; tangled; tortuous
Context example:
tortuous negotiations lasting for months
Similar:
complex (complicated in structure; consisting of interconnected parts)
Derivation:
tortuousness (puzzling complexity)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Marked by repeated turns and bends
Synonyms:
tortuous; twisting; twisty; voluminous; winding
Context example:
had to steer the car down a twisty track
Similar:
crooked (having or marked by bends or angles; not straight or aligned)
Derivation:
tortuosity; tortuousness (a tortuous and twisted shape or position)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Not straightforward
Context example:
his tortuous reasoning
Similar:
indirect (extended senses; not direct in manner or language or behavior or action)
Derivation:
tortuousness (puzzling complexity)
Context examples
A non-neoplastic polyp that arises from the stomach and is characterized by the presence of elongated, tortuous, and cystic foveolar zones, edematous changes, and inflammation.
(Gastric Juvenile Polyp, NCI Thesaurus)
A form or shape that is folded in curved or tortuous windings.
(Convolution, NCI Thesaurus)
It is characterized by the presence of tortuous and cystically dilated glands, edematous changes, and inflammation.
(Colon Juvenile Polyp, NCI Thesaurus)
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