| Main Entry: | tortuous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | very twisted |
Synonyms: |
anfractuous, bent, circuitous, convoluted, crooked, curved, flexuous, indirect, involute, labyrinthine, mazy, meandering, meandrous, roundabout, serpentine, sinuous, snaky, twisting, vermiculate, winding, zigzag |
| Notes: | tortuous is 'winding, crooked, full of twists and turns' and torturous (based on 'torture') is 'painful, characterized by suffering' |
Antonyms: |
direct, straight, untwisted |
| Main Entry: | tortuous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | complicated |
Synonyms: |
ambiguous, convoluted, cunning, deceptive, devious, indirect, involute, involved, misleading, perverse, roundabout, tricky |
Antonyms: |
easy, straightforward, uncomplicated, uninvolved |
| Main Entry: | agonizing |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult and painful, suffering |
Synonyms: |
disturbing, excruciating, extreme, fierce, harrowing, intense, racking, struggling, tearing, tormenting, tortuous, torturing, vehement, violent |
| Main Entry: | circuitous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | going around, indirect |
Synonyms: |
ambagious, back road, by way of, circular, collateral, complicated, devious, labyrinthine, long way, long way around, meandering, oblique, rambling, roundabout, tortuous, winding around |
Antonyms: |
direct, in line, straight |
| Main Entry: | complex |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | involved, intricate |
Synonyms: |
circuitous, complicated, composite, compound, compounded, confused, conglomerate, convoluted, elaborate, entangled, heterogeneous, knotty, labyrinthine, manifold, mingled, miscellaneous, mixed, mixed-up, mosaic, motley, multifarious, multiform, multiple, multiplex, tangled, tortuous, variegated |
| Notes: | something complex may be well-organized and logically constructed as well as subtle and intricate, while a thing that is complicated will have something irregular, perverse, asymmetrical in addition to fundamental intricacy; complex is more formal and technical (a problem in mathematics is complex) while something like personal life can be complicated |
Antonyms: |
clear, easy, evident, homogeneous, obvious, plain, simple, uniform |
| Main Entry: | complex |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult to understand |
Synonyms: |
Byzantine, Daedalean, Gordian, abstruse, bewildering, circuitous, complicated, confused, convoluted, crabbed, cryptic, discursive, disordered, disturbing, enigmatic, entangled, excursive, hidden, impenetrable, inscrutable, interwoven, intricate, involved, jumbled, knotted, knotty, labyrinthine, mazy, meandering, mingled, mixed, muddled, obscure, paradoxical, perplexing, puzzling, rambling, recondite, round-about, sinuous, snarled, sophisticated, tangled, tortuous, undecipherable, unfathomable, winding |
Antonyms: |
apparent, clear, direct, discernible, easy, evident, obvious, plain |
| Main Entry: | convoluted |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | complicated |
Synonyms: |
baffling, complex, confused, elaborate, impenetrable, intricate, involved, labyrinthine, perplexing, puzzling, serpentine, tangled, tortuous |
Antonyms: |
simple, straightforward |
| Main Entry: | crooked |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | bent, angled |
Synonyms: |
agee, anfractuous, angular, asymmetric, awry, bowed, catawampus, circuitous, cockeyed, contorted, crippled, curved, curving, deformed, deviating, devious, disfigured, distorted, errant, gnarled, hooked, incurving, indirect, irregular, kinky, knurly, lopsided, meandering, misshapen, not straight, oblique, out of shape, rambling, roundabout, screwy, serpentine, sinuous, skewed, slanted, snaky, spiral, tilted, topsy-turvy, tortile, tortuous, twisted, twisting, uneven, warped, winding, zigzag |
Antonyms: |
straight |
| Main Entry: | devious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | crooked; indirect |
Synonyms: |
ambiguous, bending, circuitous, confounding, confusing, curving, detouring, deviating, digressing, digressory, diverting, errant, erratic, excursive, flexuous, misleading, obscure, out-of-the-way, rambling, remote, removed, roundabout, serpentine, straying, tortuous, twisting, wandering |
Antonyms: |
direct, straight |
| Main Entry: | indirect |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | roundabout; unintended |
Synonyms: |
ambiguous, ancillary, circuitous, circular, circumlocutory, collateral, complicated, contingent, crooked, devious, discursive, duplicitous, erratic, eventual, implied, incidental, long, long way home, long-drawn-out, long-winded, meandering, oblique, obscure, out-of-the-way, periphrastic, rambling, secondary, serpentine, sidelong, sinister, sinuous, snaking, sneaking, sneaky, subsidiary, tortuous, twisting, underhand, vagrant, wandering, winding, zigzag |
Antonyms: |
direct, straight, straightforward |