Torturous: meaning, pronunciation and examples
Torturous adjective. Causing great pain or suffering; agonising.
How to say it
TOR-chuh-rus/ˈtɔːtʃ(ə)rəs/
3 syllables, stressed on the first (TOR).
Torturous in a sentence
The final mile of the marathon was torturous.
We sat through a torturous two hours of speeches before dinner.
Similar and opposite
Similar:
- agonising
- excruciating
- painful
- gruelling
Opposite:
- painless
- pleasant
Usage note
Torturous means causing torture; tortuous means full of twists. A long, winding argument is tortuous, even if listening to it feels torturous.
Don’t confuse with tortuous
tortuous (adjective): Full of twists and turns; also, needlessly long and complicated.
Where torturous comes from
From torture, from Latin torquere, to twist.
Test yourself
Which word fills the gap?
We sat through a _____ two hours of speeches before dinner.
- torturous
- continuous
- averse
Show the answer
torturous: We sat through a torturous two hours of speeches before dinner.