torturous

[tawr-cher-uhs]

adjective

1. pertaining to, involving, or causing torture or suffering.

Confusables Note

Torturous refers specifically to what involves or causes pain or suffering: prisoners working in the torturous heat; torturous memories of past injustice. Some speakers and writers use torturous for tortuous , especially in the senses “twisting, winding” and “convoluted”: a torturous road; torturous descriptions. Others, however, keep the two adjectives (and their corresponding adverbs) separate in all senses: a tortuous (twisting) road; tortuous (convoluted) descriptions; torturous (painful) treatments.

Other Word Forms

• torturously adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of torturous¹

First recorded in 1490–1500; from Anglo-French; Old French tortureus; torture, -ous

Example Sentences

Brandon Kyle Goodman shared how getting a Brazilian wax — first experienced as a torturous way to please a partner — ultimately became a beloved personal ritual, a direct line of connection with their queerness and themself.

From Los Angeles Times

A top priority will be looking at how to improve the Windrush Compensation Scheme which has been described by campaigners as "torturous".

From BBC

Transitions and transformations can be fraught, even torturous.

From Los Angeles Times

The screech of truck brakes was particularly torturous, they said.

From Los Angeles Times

In these moments, he mostly dispenses with the pretense of love and simply just wants to be seen as who he is, with all his torturous flaws, by another human being.

From Salon

Related Words

• agonizing 
• distressing www.thesaurus.com
• excruciating 
• harrowing 
• trying 

When To Use

What’s the difference between torturous and tortuous?

Torturous is used to describe things that are painful or that cause suffering, as if they were a form of torture. Tortuous means winding or full of twists and turns, as in a tortuous path, but it can also be used in a more figurative way to mean indirect, convoluted, or even devious.Both words are adjectives, and their spellings are separated by only one letter—making their pronunciations very similar. Making things even more confusing is that there are some situations in which it could make sense to use either word. For example, a piece of writing that’s extremely hard to follow because of how unorganized it is could be described as both tortuous (because it’s so meandering) and torturous (because it’s like torture to read it).The best way to remember the difference is that torturous has a second r in it, just like its base word, torture. If you want to use the word tortuous in a piece of writing and you’re worried it might be confusing, you might be right! Luckily, there are plenty of alternative words that can be used in the same way, depending on what you mean, such as winding, meandering, circuitous, indirect, and convoluted.Here’s an example of torturous and tortuous used correctly in the same sentence.Example: Trying to follow the tortuous arguments in the meandering paper was torturous. Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between torturous and tortuous.