Word Confusion: Tortuous versus Torturous

Posted March 13, 2017 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
13 July 2023

Pinterest pin for Tortuous versus Torturous

Now this was a tortuous post to write, trying to keep track of that second r lest it twist up my words.

But it doesn’t really matter how tricky a pair of words are, as the problem remains the same with any Word Confusion . . . as the easy and the torturous are just as confusing.

If you’re having the same initial problem I had, it’s tortuRous with the capped R the distinction between the two confusions. That extra r makes torturous feel harder, nastier while trying to remember to leave that second r out requires some tortuous thinking. Another option is all that twisting and bending of the -uou- within tortuous — I can almost feel my shoulders twisting and turning as they wind through those three curvaceous letters.

It’s a long and tortuous road — thank god the Beatles went for winding!

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

If you found this post on “Tortuous versus Torturous” interesting, consider subscribing to KD Did It, if you’d like to track this post for future updates.

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Tortuous	Torturous
Crooked Street, San Francisco, by Koshy Koshy from Faridabad, Haryana, India, is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. It is indeed a tortuous street to wind down whether you’re in a car or on foot.	Torture in Egypt by Carlos Latuff is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Yep, this looks pretty torturous to me, and I’m shriveling up just thinking about his pain.
Part of Grammar:
Adjective	Adjective
Full of twists, turns, and bends Excessively lengthy and complex Twisting, winding, or crooked Not direct or straightforward, as in procedure or speech Intricate Circuitous Deceitfully indirect or morally crooked, as proceedings, methods, or policy Devious	Agonized suffering Characterized by, involving, or causing excruciating pain or suffering
Examples:
The route is remote and tortuous. He made a tortuous argument. It was a tortuous path they had to follow to salvation. Those tortuous negotiations lasted for months. He had quite the tortuous mind. Both paths were tortuous and strewn with boulders. George always found contracts a tortuous read.	It was a torturous eight weeks in their prison camp. They had a torturous five days of fitness training. Her memories of that rape five years ago still left her with torturous dreams. The torturous beatings were so bad that he hadn’t even the strength to groan. The desert heat and the lack of water were torturous.
Derivatives:
Adjective: nontortuous, untortuous Adverb: nontortuously, tortuously Noun: tortuosity, tortuosities, tortuousness	Adverb: torturously
History of the Word:
Late Middle English via the Old French from the Latin tortuosus, from tortus meaning twisting, a twist, from the Latin torquere meaning to twist.	Late 15th century from the Anglo-Norman French, from torture meaning torture.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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