torture
Americannoun
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the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.
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a method of inflicting such pain.
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Often tortures. the pain or suffering caused or undergone.
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extreme anguish of body or mind; agony.
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a cause of severe pain or anguish.
verb (used with object)
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to subject to torture.
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to afflict with severe pain of body or mind.
My back is torturing me.
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to force or extort by torture.
We'll torture the truth from his lips!
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to twist, force, or bring into some unnatural position or form.
trees tortured by storms.
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to distort or pervert (language, meaning, etc.).
verb
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to cause extreme physical pain to, esp in order to extract information, break resistance, etc
to torture prisoners
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to give mental anguish to
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to twist into a grotesque form
noun
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physical or mental anguish
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the practice of torturing a person
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a cause of mental agony or worry
Usage
The adjective torturous is sometimes confused with tortuous. One speaks of a torturous experience, i.e. one that involves pain or suffering, but of a tortuous road, i.e. one that winds or twists
Synonym Usage
See torment.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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pretorturenoun
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self-torturenoun
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torturernoun
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overtortureverb (used with object)
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self-torturedadjective
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self-torturingadjective
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torturableadjective
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torturedadjective
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torturesomeadjective
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torturingadjective
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untorturedadjective
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torturedlyadverb
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torturinglyadverb
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torturouslyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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torturesimple
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torturessimple
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have torturedperfect
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has torturedperfect
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am torturingprogressive
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are torturingprogressive
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is torturingprogressive
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have been torturingperfect progressive
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has been torturingperfect progressive
Past
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torturedsimple
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had torturedperfect
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was torturingprogressive
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were torturingprogressive
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had been torturingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of torture
First recorded in 1530–40, torture is from the Late Latin word tortūra a twisting, torment, torture. See tort, -ure
Explanation
To torture is to torment or purposefully put someone through intense pain or agony. The word torture comes from the word for "harm." It can refer to the deliberate infliction of physical or mental suffering in order to punish or obtain information; the act of distorting something, so it means something it wasn't intended to mean; or extreme mental distress or unbearable physical pain not necessarily inflicted by another.
Vocabulary lists containing torture
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act III
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Twists and Turns: Tor
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That Hurts! Synonyms for "Pain"
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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:
No doubt, a shameless data miner can torture the data long enough to get it to support any conclusion.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
When a US judge ruled that Benjamin, a Nigerian green card holder married to an American citizen, was entitled to torture protections, he was looking forward to reuniting with his family.
From Barron's ● Jul. 7, 2026
Earlier in the trial Khaled al-H. said he had not ordered or witnessed any torture at his place of work.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
“For decades, the United States has allowed individuals and families who are fleeing persecution, torture and death to ask for protection at U.S. borders.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
For though he could have faced torture he couldn't bear being made ridiculous.
From "The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis
Open is often regarded as the most challenging of the four majors, and there isn’t a host that tortures the world’s best players quite like Shinnecock.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
Yet, Paltrow makes it look like easy lifting, as if dodging the universe’s cerebral tortures were as low-effort as the #BoyfriendBreakfasts she’s taken to posting on Instagram.
From Salon ● Dec. 22, 2025
“Have the merciless persecutions and unutterable tortures of the dark ages not yet opened their eyes and enlarged their heart for the alleviation of their fellow men’s woes?”
From Slate ● Apr. 10, 2025
I left them, so that’s what tortures me.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2025
But sibling relationships are often fraught with petty tortures.
From "The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates" by Wes Moore
Ten years ago, Peter Cipriano, a graduate student at Baruch College, wrote his master’s thesis about one of New York City’s most tortured civic failings: its inability to fix Penn Station.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026
Louis, in comparison, is kinda busted — gloomy, tortured, unable to fully embrace the everlasting banquet Lestat has laid out for him.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
“We would get together and have these very long conversations,” says director Rebecca Miller, who interviewed American cinema’s great poet of tortured masculinity over five years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026
All the while, a tortured diplomatic process, involving multiple actors, is playing out in the background.
From BBC ● May 28, 2026
Ivory Christian, filled with so many tortured feelings about the whole thing, didn’t show any emotion one way or another.
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
Her prose is exact and exquisite, as when describing Clare: “The soft white face, the bright hair, the disturbing scarlet mouth, the dreaming eyes, the caressing smile, the whole torturing loveliness.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
India's batters are torturing England in this series.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2025
In contrast, most of the concert appearances show Williams torturing himself with crippling self-doubt as voices in his head and visions in the audience tell him that he is no good.
From Salon ● Jan. 10, 2025
While the professionals scratch their heads, we can see that his acting out is only a reaction to whatever thing or condition or cosmological prank is torturing him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2024
So why do I write, torturing myself to put it down?
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
