Synonyms

distort

American

[dih-stawrt] / dɪˈstɔrt /

verb (used with object)

to twist awry or out of shape; make crooked or deformed.

Arthritis had distorted his fingers.
to give a false, perverted, or disproportionate meaning to; misrepresent.

to distort the facts.

Synonyms:

misstate, falsify, twist, misconstrue, pervert
Electronics. to reproduce or amplify (a signal) inaccurately by changing the frequencies or unequally changing the delay or amplitude of the components of the output wave.

distort British

/ dɪˈstɔːt /

verb

(often passive) to twist or pull out of shape; make bent or misshapen; contort; deform
to alter or misrepresent (facts, motives, etc)
electronics to reproduce or amplify (a signal) inaccurately, changing the shape of the waveform

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Synonym Usage

See misrepresent.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of distort

1580–90; from Latin distortus (past participle of distorquēre “to distort”), equivalent to dis- dis- ¹ + tor(qu)- (stem of torquēre “to twist”) + -tus past participle suffix

Explanation

Distort means to twist out of shape. When you look at a tree through a twisting kaleidoscope, you distort its image, making its branches and leaves look wavy and misshapen. Distort is a verb that means to change the shape of something. You can distort pretzel dough by twisting it into the shape of an "S" instead of a normal pretzel shape. You can also distort, or change, the meaning of something. When one distorts the truth, it might not be an out-and-out lie; it could just be an exaggeration — like telling your pals you caught a six-foot tuna when you actually landed a six-inch minnow.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing distort

Twists and Turns: Tor

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Metamorphosis

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Number the Stars

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

distort distorts distorted distorting

Such choices don’t distort the market—they are integral to the market and unavoidable.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

The practice “may distort competition, stifle innovation, and potentially lead to monopolies or market concentration in strategic sectors,” as the Center for Strategic and International Studies put it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

She added: "No matter what noises exist out there, nothing will be able to distort my reality or be more real to me or not as real to me as this love that we share."

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

"These allegations are all either baseless or they distort the truth," he has said.

From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026

Galactic collisions distort the shape of an originally spherical cluster and may also contribute to the genesis of spirals and irregulars from ellipticals.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Mitchell and Pomerleau argue the exclusion is inefficient, distorts economic decision-making, and treats taxpayers with similar levels of income differently.

From Barron's ● May 13, 2026

Proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915, general relativity describes gravity as the bending of spacetime by mass, similar to how a heavy object distorts a stretched surface.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 19, 2026

"When you go through something like that so young it kind of distorts your reality for a long time," Pesante said.

From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2026

“Inflation distorts all forms of capital income and expense, not just capital gains,” observed Elena Patel of the Brookings Institution earlier this month.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2026

Unlike most mortals, she could see through the Mist—the magic veil that distorts human vision.

From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan

In this alternate universe, beautiful people have pig snouts, distorted mouths, and sagging cheeks.

From Slate ● Sep. 2, 2026

It was almost impossible to hear the presentation because the volume was turned up so loud that the sound was distorted.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026

Petals and hearts were photoshopped on to the then-Labour leader by the "Milifandom", a movement of young, mostly female, voters sharing romanticised images on Twitter to protest against Miliband's "distorted media portrayal".

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

These extra statistical checks were designed to determine whether people dropping out of the study could have distorted the final results.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026

I turned up the volume on my crappy headphones, but it just distorted his voice.

From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows

The subsidies were distorting prices and competition in the Part D market.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

But there is a risk that, in markets with more retail activity, these same tools could help to drive even more investors into a handful of hot names, crowding stocks and distorting prices.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026

In short, City effectively stand accused of subverting Premier League rules that clubs had agreed to comply with, and of distorting the competition over multiple seasons.

From BBC ● May 19, 2026

His side accused Lively of distorting events on set and filed a defamation suit seeking $400 million in damages against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and others.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2026

The surface of the bulge continued to crack and break, distorting from pressure underneath.

From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023