What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Tortuous vs Tormenting - What's the difference?

tortuous | tormenting |

As adjectives the difference between tortuous and tormenting

is that tortuous is twisted; having many turns; convoluted while tormenting is involving or causing torment.

As a verb tormenting is

.

As a noun tormenting is

the act by which somebody is tormented.

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 .

    tormenting

    English

    Verb

    (head)

    • Adjective

    (more)
  • Involving or causing torment.

    • Synonyms

    * tormentous

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act by which somebody is tormented.
  • * 1832 , Mary Brunton, Self Control (page 335)
    • If Laura really entertained the hope she mentioned, she was miserably disappointed; for Lady Pelham remitted not a jot of her tormentings .