Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act or an instance of distorting.
  • noun The condition of being distorted.
  • noun A statement that twists fact; a misrepresentation.
  • noun The alteration of the original form of a signal representing an image, a sound, a waveform, or other information.
  • noun A visible or audible effect of such an alteration, such as the warping of an image or noise in an audio recording.
  • noun Psychology The modification of unconscious impulses into forms acceptable by conscious or dreaming perception.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of distorting.
  • noun In mathematics, any change of shape not involving a breach of continuity. But a mere alteration of size in the same ratio in all directions is not considered to be a distortion.
  • noun A twisting or writhing motion: as, the facial distortions of a sufferer.
  • noun The state of being twisted out of shape; a deviation from the natural or regular shape or position; an unnatural direction of parts, from whatever cause.
  • noun A perversion of the true meaning or intent.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of distorting, or twisting out of natural or regular shape; a twisting or writhing motion.
  • noun A wresting from the true meaning.
  • noun The state of being distorted, or twisted out of shape or out of true position; crookedness; perversion.
  • noun (Med.) An unnatural deviation of shape or position of any part of the body producing visible deformity.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An act of distorting.
  • noun A result of distorting.
  • noun A misrepresentation of the truth.
  • noun Noise or other artifacts caused in the electronic reproduction of sound or music.
  • noun An effect used in music, most commonly on guitars in rock or metal.
  • noun optics an aberration that causes magnification to change over the field of view.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an optical phenomenon resulting from the failure of a lens or mirror to produce a good image
  • noun a shape resulting from distortion
  • noun a change for the worse
  • noun the mistake of misrepresenting the facts
  • noun a change (usually undesired) in the waveform of an acoustic or analog electrical signal; the difference between two measurements of a signal (as between the input and output signal)
  • noun the act of distorting something so it seems to mean something it was not intended to mean

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word distortion.

Examples

  • I use the term distortion in relation to my personal observations, for I resided in the Canal Zone from 1967-1970.

    Danger Zone? Thomson, Bruce H. 1977

  • The second long-term distortion is similar to the first.

    Matthew Yglesias » The Bitter Fruits of a Finance-Oriented Economy 2010

  • Parliament the two were expelled for professional misconduct and what he called distortion of events in Zimbabwe and "propagating falsehoods" in their reporting to media organizations abroad.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2001

  • Mkapa blamed the media for what he described as distortion of facts, saying: "It is discouraging to see that the media and the international community are bent on distorting the whole issue."

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2001

  • Assad told ABC that he doesn't "own" the country's security forces, dismissed the UN's estimate of the number killed, and asked for the organization to send "concrete evidence" to support allegations that Syria has committed war crimes, which he called a "distortion of reality."

    BusinessWeek.com -- Top News 2011

  • Assad told ABC that he doesn't "own" the country's security forces, dismissed United Nations estimates that at least 4,000 people have died since unrest began in March, and asked for the organization to send "concrete evidence" to support allegations that Syria has committed war crimes, which he called a "distortion of reality."

    BusinessWeek.com -- Top News 2011

  • Assad told ABC that he doesn't "own" the country's security forces, dismissed the UN's estimate of the number killed, and asked for the organization to send "concrete evidence" to support allegations that Syria has committed war crimes, which he called a "distortion of reality."

    BusinessWeek.com -- Top News 2011

  • Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent whose nomination has been delayed by Republicans for unrelated concerns, sent a letter to senators in November to correct what he called a distortion of his record.

    WBAY Action 2 News 2010

  • Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent whose nomination has been delayed by Republicans for unrelated concerns, sent a letter to senators in November to correct what he called a distortion of his record.

    Newsvine - Get Smarter Here Philip Elliott, Associated Press Writers 2010

  • The comments have provoked outrage, with politicians in France and Germany vocal in condemning what they termed a distortion of the scientific evidence that risked putting many more lives at risk in sub-Saharan Africa, where millions are living with the disease.

    Top stories from Times Online 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.