Definition

1. Noun:
   • The quality of being full of twists, turns, or bends; winding complexity. It describes something that is not straight or direct in its course or shape.
   • The quality of being excessively complicated, intricate, or difficult to follow. It refers to something that is not straightforward in reasoning, process, or structure.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:
  • The tortuousness of the mountain road made the journey slow and difficult. (The winding, twisting quality of the road caused the slow travel.)
  • The tortuousness of the legal document confused even the experts. (The excessively complicated nature of the document caused confusion.)

Advanced Usage

• "The tortuousness of the plot": The intricate and convoluted nature of a story's events.
  • Readers were captivated by the sheer tortuousness of the novel's plot.
• "A path of great tortuousness": A path characterized by many twists and turns.
  • The hiking trail was known for its great tortuousness as it wound through the canyon.

Variants and Related Words

• Tortuous (adj): Full of twists and turns; excessively complex.
  • The negotiations followed a tortuous path to an agreement.
• Tortuosity (n): A synonym for tortuousness, often used to describe a specific twist or bend, or the state of being tortuous.
  • The river's tortuosity creates many oxbow lakes.

Synonyms

• Convolution: A coil or twist; complexity.
• Intricacy: The quality of having many complexly arranged elements.
• Indirectness: The quality of not being straightforward or direct.

Related Phrases

• By tortuous means: Achieved through a complicated, roundabout, or devious method.
  • The truth was finally uncovered by tortuous means.

Related Idioms

• A tortuous road/path to something: A metaphor for a process that is long, complicated, and full of difficulties.
  • His recovery was a tortuous road, but he finally regained his health.

Noun

1. puzzling complexity
2. a tortuous and twisted shape or position
   • they built a tree house in the tortuosities of its boughs
   • the acrobat performed incredible contortions