noun
Meaning 1
An act of distorting.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
distortion
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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UK: /dɪsˈtɔːʃən/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -ɔː(ɹ)ʃən
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CMU ARPABET: D IH0 S T AO1 R SH AH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
A result of distorting.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A misrepresentation of the truth.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Examples
- The story he told was a bit of a distortion.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
Noise or other artifacts caused in the electronic reproduction of sound or music.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Examples
- This recording sounds awful due to the distortion.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
An effect used in music, most commonly on guitars in rock or metal.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
An aberration that causes magnification to change over the field of view.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Topics: engineering, natural-sciences, optics, physical-sciences, physics
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 7
the mistake of misrepresenting the facts
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: mistake, error, fault
noun
Meaning 8
the act of distorting something so it seems to mean something it was not intended to mean
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: overrefinement, straining, torture, twisting
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: falsification, misrepresentation
noun
Meaning 9
a change for the worse
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: deformation
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: damage, harm, impairment
Narrower terms: warp, warping
noun
Meaning 10
an optical phenomenon resulting from the failure of a lens or mirror to produce a good image
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: aberration, optical aberration
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: optical phenomenon
Narrower terms: chromatic aberration, spherical aberration
noun
Meaning 11
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)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- heavy metal guitar players use vacuum tube amplifiers to produce extreme distortion
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: acoustic phenomenon, electrical phenomenon
Narrower terms: nonlinear distortion, amplitude distortion
noun
Meaning 12
a shape resulting from distortion
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: distorted shape
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: shape, form
Narrower terms: tortuosity, tortuousness, torsion, contortion, crookedness, warp, buckle, knot, gnarl
History
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin distortio, distortionis, from distortus.
Across languages
Translations
78 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: изкривяване (izkrivjavane) — act of distorting
- Bulgarian: измятане (izmjatane) — act of distorting
- Catalan: distorsió — act of distorting
- Chinese Mandarin: 扭曲 (niǔqū) — act of distorting
- Danish: fordrejelse, forvridning, forvrængning — act of distorting
- Esperanto: distordo — act of distorting
- Finnish: vääristäminen — act of distorting
- Finnish: vääristely — act of distorting
- French: distorsion — act of distorting
- German: Verzerrung — act of distorting
- German: Verformung — act of distorting
- German: Verwindung — act of distorting
- German: Verdrehung — act of distorting
- Greek: διαστρέβλωση (diastrévlosi) — act of distorting
- Greek: παραμόρφωση (paramórfosi) — act of distorting
- Italian: distorsione — act of distorting
- Māori: whakahawenga — act of distorting
- Portuguese: distorção — act of distorting
- Romanian: distorsiune — act of distorting
- Russian: искаже́ние (iskažénije) — act of distorting
- Russian: искривле́ние (iskrivlénije) — act of distorting
- Spanish: distorsión — act of distorting
- Swedish: förvrängning — act of distorting
- Bulgarian: изкривяване (izkrivjavane) — result of distorting
- Bulgarian: деформация (deformacija) — result of distorting
- Catalan: distorsió — result of distorting
- Chinese Mandarin: 形变 (xíngbiàn) — result of distorting
- Czech: zkreslení — result of distorting
- Finnish: vääristyminen — result of distorting
- Finnish: vääristymä — result of distorting
- French: distorsion — result of distorting
- German: Verzerrung — result of distorting
- German: Verformung — result of distorting
- German: Enstellung — result of distorting
- Greek: διαστρέβλωση (diastrévlosi) — result of distorting
- Greek: παραμόρφωση (paramórfosi) — result of distorting
- Polish: zniekształcenie — result of distorting
- Portuguese: distorção — result of distorting
- Russian: искаже́ние (iskažénije) — result of distorting
- Russian: искривле́ние (iskrivlénije) — result of distorting
- Russian: дисто́рсия (distórsija) — result of distorting
- Spanish: distorsión — result of distorting
- Swedish: förvrängning — result of distorting
- Bulgarian: изопачаване (izopačavane) — misrepresentation of the truth
- Catalan: distorsió — misrepresentation of the truth
- Chinese Mandarin: 歪曲 (wāiqū) — misrepresentation of the truth
- Finnish: vääristely — misrepresentation of the truth
- German: Verzerrung — misrepresentation of the truth
- German: Verformung — misrepresentation of the truth
- German: Zerrbild — misrepresentation of the truth
- Greek: διαστρέβλωση (diastrévlosi) — misrepresentation of the truth
- Greek: παραποίηση (parapoíisi) — misrepresentation of the truth
- Greek: διαστροφή (diastrofí) — misrepresentation of the truth
- Hungarian: eltorzítás — misrepresentation of the truth
- Hungarian: meghamisítás — misrepresentation of the truth
- Portuguese: distorção — misrepresentation of the truth
- Russian: искаже́ние (iskažénije) — misrepresentation of the truth
- Swedish: förvrängning — misrepresentation of the truth
- Ukrainian: викривлення (vykryvlennja) — misrepresentation of the truth
- Bulgarian: изкривяване (izkrivjavane) — noise
- Finnish: vääristymä — noise
- German: Verzerrung — noise
- Greek: παραμόρφωση (paramórfosi) — noise
- Māori: hohōtanga — noise
- Portuguese: distorção — noise
- Russian: искаже́ние (iskažénije) — noise
- Russian: искривле́ние (iskrivlénije) — noise
- Russian: дисто́рсия (distórsija) — noise
- Swedish: distortion — noise
- Swedish: förvränging — noise
- Danish: distortion — effect used in music
- Finnish: särö — effect used in music
- French: distorsion — effect used in music
- German: Verzerrung — effect used in music
- Greek: παραμόρφωση (paramórfosi) — effect used in music
- Portuguese: distorção — effect used in music
- Russian: дисто́ршн (distóršn) — effect used in music
- Polish: dystorsja — optics
Real reading context