Distortion
noun
noun ·3 syllables ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An act of distorting. countable, uncountable
- 2 the mistake of misrepresenting the facts wordnet
- 3 A result of distorting. countable, uncountable
- 4 the act of distorting something so it seems to mean something it was not intended to mean wordnet
- 5 A misrepresentation of the truth. countable, uncountable
"The story he told was a bit of a distortion."
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 a change for the worse wordnet
- 7 Noise or other artifacts caused in the electronic reproduction of sound or music. countable, uncountable
"This recording sounds awful due to the distortion."
- 8 an optical phenomenon resulting from the failure of a lens or mirror to produce a good image wordnet
- 9 An effect used in music, most commonly on guitars in rock or metal. countable, uncountable
- 10 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) wordnet
- 11 An aberration that causes magnification to change over the field of view. countable, uncountable
- 12 a shape resulting from distortion wordnet
Example
More examples"We experience and understand the world through signals that are received by the senses and interpreted by the brain - and both stages are subject to distortion."
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin distortio, distortionis, from distortus.
Related phrases
More for "distortion"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.