distortion
noun
Simple meaning
Distorting something so it seems to mean something it was not intended to mean.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihstawrshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪsˈtɔɹʃən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The act of distorting something so it seems to mean something it was not intended to mean
A misrepresentation of the truth.
A result of distorting.
Noise or other artifacts caused in the electronic reproduction of sound or music.
An effect used in music, most commonly on guitars in rock or metal.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act of distorting something so it seems to mean something it was not intended to mean
Used this way, distortion is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use distortion
- “Heavy metal guitar players use vacuum tube amplifiers to produce extreme distortion.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Distortion that occurs when the output signal does not have a linear relation to the input signal.
Distortion that occurs when the output signal does not have a linear relation to the input signal.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.