tortuosity
Americannoun
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the state of being tortuous; twisted form or course; crookedness.
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a twist, bend, or crook.
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a twisting or crooked part, passage, or thing.
noun
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the state or quality of being tortuous
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a twist, turn, or coil
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of tortuosity
From the Late Latin word tortuōsitās, dating back to 1595–1605. See tortuous, -ity
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:
Our tents are played upon by the flickering shadows of the vast pipal-tree that rises in a laocoön tortuosity of roots out of an old well.
From Twenty-One Days in India; and, the Teapot Series by Aberigh-Mackay, George Robert
Lateral passages branched out on either side in such labyrinthine tortuosity of confusion that Nidia’s first thought was how it would be possible for any one to find his way through here a second time.
From John Ames, Native Commissioner A Romance of the Matabele Rising by Mitford, Bertram
It could not be expected that while keeping a considerable distance from water, would follow its amazing tortuosity, probably surpasses that of any river on the globe.
From The Lost Trail by Ellis, Edward Sylvester
The different depths of the ocean, the obstructions of islands, and continents, clouds and sunshine, and a great many other agencies, combine to give this tortuosity and seeming irregularity to the currents.
From Memoirs of Service Afloat, During the War Between the States by Semmes, Raphael
As I expected, the depraved Whig Journalist, with characteristic mental tortuosity, has asserted that the sounds proceeded from a rookery in the adjoining wood, aided by the braying of the turf-man’s donkey.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, November 20, 1841 by Various
It would be tedious to detail the vacillations, the obscurities, and the tortuosities of Lord Ellenborough's successive communications to his two Generals in Afghanistan.
From The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80 by Forbes, Archibald
But she gave up that point as being only one more of the inexplicable tortuosities of a man's sense of honour.
From The Eldest Son by Marshall, Archibald
Luedde found further that in syphilitics there were tortuosities, irregularities, minute aneurysmal dilatations and even obliterations of capillaries.
From Arteriosclerosis and Hypertension: with Chapters on Blood Pressure, 3rd Edition. by Warfield, Louis Marshall
In an unwise moment we begged the draper's wife to honor us with a visit and explain the obliquities of the kitchen range and the tortuosities of the sink-spout to Miss Grieve.
From Penelope's Progress Being Such Extracts from the Commonplace Book of Penelope Hamilton As Relate to Her Experiences in Scotland by Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith
In an unwise moment we begged the draper's wife to honour us with a visit and explain the obliquities of the kitchen range and the tortuosities of the sink-spout to Miss Grieve.
From Penelope's Experiences in Scotland by Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith
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.
