distortion
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
distortion
n 1: a change for the worse [syn: {distortion}, {deformation}]
2: a shape resulting from distortion [syn: {distorted shape},
{distortion}]
3: an optical phenomenon resulting from the failure of a lens or
mirror to produce a good image [syn: {aberration},
{distortion}, {optical aberration}]
4: 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); "heavy metal guitar players use vacuum tube
amplifiers to produce extreme distortion"
5: the act of distorting something so it seems to mean something
it was not intended to mean [syn: {distortion},
{overrefinement}, {straining}, {torture}, {twisting}]
6: the mistake of misrepresenting the facts
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Distortion \Dis*tor"tion\, n. [L. distortio: cf. F. distortion.]
1. The act of distorting, or twisting out of natural or
regular shape; a twisting or writhing motion; as, the
distortions of the face or body.
[1913 Webster]
2. A wresting from the true meaning. --Bp. Wren.
[1913 Webster]
3. The state of being distorted, or twisted out of shape or
out of true position; crookedness; perversion.
[1913 Webster]
4. (Med.) An unnatural deviation of shape or position of any
part of the body producing visible deformity.
[1913 Webster]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
215 Moby Thesaurus words for "distortion":
aberrancy, aberration, abstractionism, abuse of terms,
anamorphosis, apparent soundness, bad likeness, birdies, birthmark,
blackhead, bleb, blemish, blister, blooping, blurping, botch,
bulla, burlesque, caricature, casuistry, catachresis, check,
cicatrix, circularity, coloring, comedo, confabulation, contorting,
crack, crater, craze, daub, defacement, defect, defectiveness,
deflection, deflexure, deformation, deformity, delusion, deviancy,
diffraction, diffusion, disfiguration, disfigurement,
disingenuousness, dispersion, eisegesis, equivocalness,
equivocation, errancy, erroneousness, error, evasive reasoning,
exaggeration, expressionism, fallaciousness, fallacy,
false coloring, false swearing, falseness, falsification,
falsifying, falsity, fault, faultiness, feedback, flaw, flawedness,
flection, flexure, flutter, fluttering, freckle, garbling, gloss,
hamartia, hemangioma, heresy, heterodoxy, hickey, hissing, howling,
hum, hyperbole, illusion, inaccuracy, injustice, insincerity,
jesuitism, jesuitry, keloid, kink, lentigo, litotes,
malconformation, malentendu, malformation, malobservation, milium,
misapplication, misapprehension, miscitation, miscoloring,
misconception, misconstruction, misdoing, misdrawing,
misexplanation, misexplication, misexposition, misfeasance,
misintelligence, misinterpretation, misjudgment, mispainting,
misquotation, misreading, misrendering, misreport,
misrepresentation, misshape, misstatement, misteaching,
mistranslation, misunderstanding, misuse of words, mole,
motorboating, mystification, needle scar, nevus, nonrealism,
obfuscation, obscurantism, overdrawing, overstatement,
oversubtlety, parody, peccancy, perjury, perversion, philosophism,
pimple, pit, plausibility, plausibleness, pock, pockmark,
port-wine mark, port-wine stain, prevarication, pustule,
rationalization, refraction, rift, rumble, scab, scar, scatter,
scratch, scratching, scribble, sebaceous cyst, self-contradiction,
shredding, sin, sinfulness, skewness, slanting, sophism,
sophistical reasoning, sophistication, sophistry, special pleading,
speciosity, specious reasoning, speciousness, split, squeals,
squeezing, static, straining, strawberry mark, sty, subtlety,
torsion, torturing, track, travesty, twist, twisting,
understatement, unorthodoxy, untrueness, untruth, untruthfulness,
verruca, vesicle, vicious circle, vicious reasoning, wale, warp,
wart, weal, welt, wen, whistles, whitehead, woomping, wow, wowwows,
wrenching, wrong, wrongness
[email protected]