adjective
- Highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious.
- usage: "the Byzantine tax structure"; "Byzantine methods for holding on to his chairmanship"; "convoluted legal language"; "convoluted reasoning"; "the plot was too involved"; "a knotty problem"; "got his way by labyrinthine maneuvering"; "Oh, what a tangled web we weave- Sir Walter Scott; "tortuous legal procedures"; "tortuous negotiations lasting for months"
- synonyms: Byzantine, convoluted, involved, knotty, tangled
- Marked by repeated turns and bends.
- usage: "a tortuous road up the mountain"; "winding roads are full of surprises"; "had to steer the car down a twisty track"
- synonyms: twisting, twisty, winding, voluminous
- Not straightforward.
- usage: "his tortuous reasoning"
WordNet 3.0 © 2006 by Princeton University
| APA | WordNet. (2010). tortuous. Retrieved September 22, 2026, from http://smartdefine.org/tortuous/definitions/1185568 |
| Chicago | WordNet. 2010. "tortuous" http://smartdefine.org/tortuous/definitions/1185568 (accessed September 22, 2026). |
| Harvard | WordNet 2010, tortuous, Smart Define, viewed 22 September, 2026, <http://smartdefine.org/tortuous/definitions/1185568>. |
| MLA | WordNet. "tortuous" 23 October 2010. Web. 22 September 2026. <http://smartdefine.org/tortuous/definitions/1185568> |