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Tortuous vs Complicated - What's the difference?

tortuous | complicated |

As adjectives the difference between tortuous and complicated

is that tortuous is twisted; having many turns; convoluted while complicated is difficult or convoluted.

As a verb complicated is

past tense of complicate.

tortuous

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Twisted; having many turns; convoluted.
  • * 2007 October 6, “Slogging on the Home Front”, editorial in ,
    • It still takes almost half a year for the average veteran’s claim for disability benefits to be decided in a tortuous process that can involve four separate hearings.
  • * Macaulay
    • The badger made his dark and tortuous hole on the side of every hill where the copsewood grew thick.
  • (obsolete) injurious; tortious
  • (astrology) oblique; applied to the six signs of the zodiac (from Capricorn to Gemini) that ascend most rapidly and obliquely
  • * Skeat
    • Infortunate ascendent tortuous .

    Usage notes

    * This term has strongly negative connotations, perhaps transferred from the similar-sounding adjective torturous . * Not to be confused with the legal term tortious .

    complicated

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Difficult or convoluted.
    • It seems this complicated situation will not blow over soon.
  • *
    • Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […]  Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.
  • (Biology) Folded longitudinally (as in the wings of certain insects).

    • Antonyms

    * simple

    Verb

    (head)
  • (complicate)
    • The process of fixing the car engine was complicated by the lack of tools.