distort
Americanverb (used with object)
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distorts,
present (3rd person singular)
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distorted,
past participle, past
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distorting
present participle
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to twist awry or out of shape; make crooked or deformed.
Arthritis had distorted his fingers.
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to give a false, perverted, or disproportionate meaning to; misrepresent.
to distort the facts.
- Synonyms:
- misstate, falsify, twist, misconstrue, pervert
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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.
verb
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(often passive) to twist or pull out of shape; make bent or misshapen; contort; deform
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to alter or misrepresent (facts, motives, etc)
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electronics to reproduce or amplify (a signal) inaccurately, changing the shape of the waveform
Synonym Usage
See misrepresent.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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distortednessnoun
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distorternoun
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overdistortverb (used with object)
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distortedadjective
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distortiveadjective
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nondistortingadjective
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nondistortiveadjective
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undistortingadjective
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distortedlyadverb
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nondistortinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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distortsimple
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distortssimple
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have distortedperfect
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has distortedperfect
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am distortingprogressive
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are distortingprogressive
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is distortingprogressive
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have been distortingperfect progressive
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has been distortingperfect progressive
Past
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distortedsimple
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had distortedperfect
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was distortingprogressive
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were distortingprogressive
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had been distortingperfect progressive
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.
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:
More than 3,200 pistons distort two flexible mirrors with near atomic-scale precision to account for blemishes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 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
All of these categories can distort or exaggerate GDP for reasons that have little to do with the health of the overall economy.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
That process can distort what was happening inside the living cell.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 2026
As the bricks appear and move outward, they distort the cell, causing it to bulge and change shape, and finally the cell pops—it bursts and dies.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
However, the map severely distorts the shapes of Earth's landmasses, making them all look slightly off.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
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
“Corruption doesn’t just slow progress, it distorts it. It raises costs, weakens competition, and erodes the trust that markets depend on. It’s not a victimless problem,” Johnson said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 26, 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
Unlike most mortals, she could see through the Mist—the magic veil that distorts human vision.
From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan
"But correcting a distorted representation is already an act of truth."
From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026
It was a rare reciprocal relationship in an interaction otherwise distorted by fame—we loved her because she was Gloria Steinem, and she loved us because we were bright-eyed young women.
From Slate ● Sep. 3, 2026
Capital allocation in the real economy became distorted, and price signals were suppressed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 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
The images in them were distorted and two-dimensional; gigantic, flat knights peered out of tiny, misshapen castles.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
French motorists are clogging TotalEnergies service stations to fill up with discount gasoline but its rivals are crying foul, accusing the energy giant of distorting competition with the encouragement of the government.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 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
This points to something else AI is distorting: international trade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
It’s as if the air is rippling in tiny visible waves, distorting the sharp edges of the wood and a goblet of wine someone has set there.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
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.
