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contort

UK/kənˈtɔː(ɹ)t/US/kənˈtɔː(ɹ)t/
verbB2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — contortionist sits at #13,645neutral

Other forms: contorted, contorting, contorts

To contort is to twist something out of its normal shape. A face contorted with pain, a body contorted to reach behind a cupboard.

Faces and bodies are what usually contort, and the word carries effort or distress with it — features contorted in rage, limbs contorted into an impossible position. A contortionist is the circus performer who does it deliberately for a living. The word stretches to arguments too: contorting the facts means twisting them until they fit, and that use is always an accusation. The noun is contortion, and the shape it leaves behind is contorted.

Definitions of contort

  1. 1verbcontortTo twist something violently out of its normal shape.B2

    “His face contorted with pain.”

    synonyms: twist, distort

Where it comes from

Contort is twisting thoroughly. Latin torqueō meant to twist or turn, the verb standing behind torture and torque, and con- makes the twist complete.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *terkʷ-

  2. Latin

    contortus

  3. English, today

    contort

Built from

  • torqueō · Latin — twist, turn

Equivalent to con- + -tort; from Middle English -, borrowed from Latin contortus, past participle of contorqueō, from com- + torqueō (“twist, turn”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 3 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

contort in the wild

  • The basis for "contorts" includes the widespread application of promissory estoppel (as a substitute for consideration) and the awarding of punitive damages in breach of contract claims.

    Contorts

  • Alternatively, "contorts" may simply refer to a fusion of contracts and torts law, rather than a process in which one area of the law erodes or overtakes another.

    Contorts

  • However, things contort after he witnesses a murder committed by a dreaded gangster.

    Papa The Great

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the torqueō family

torch

contort — used too rare to measure · point at the bar for the others

  • contortionist