Confusables Entry 361 / 1011 60-second read

Tortuous vs. Torturous

Full of twists versus involving pain.

The comparisoni

✗ Wrong

The logic in this legacy code is absolutely torturous.

✓ Correct

The logic in this legacy code is absolutely tortuous.

More examplesii

01

The tortuous wait for the deployment to finish.

The torturous wait for the deployment to finish.

02

The mountain road is very torturous.

The mountain road is very tortuous.

The ruleiii

TORTUOUS = full of twists and turns; excessively complex.

Both imply that something is 'difficult' or 'unpleasant', but one is structural and the other is experiential.

Memory aidiv

Remember it like this

Tortuous is like a Tour (full of turns). Torturous is like Torture.

You might also like 6 related
↑↓Navigate Open EscClose All results →