distortion

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin distortio, distortionis, from distortus.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈtɔːʃən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)ʃən

Noun

distortion (countable and uncountable, plural distortions)

1. An act of distorting.
2. A result of distorting.
3. A misrepresentation of the truth.

   The story he told was a bit of a distortion.

   • 1999 July 9, Bernard Burgoyne, “The Mind”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     The conscious mind refuses to admit any failure to perceive, and puts in its place a series of rationalisations which are fabrications and distortions of the real nature of things.

   • 2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, page 204:

     Remembering is an act of re-creation and therefore subject to distortion and fictionalization: 'real' memories become tales, and tales become 'memories'.

4. Noise or other artifacts caused in the electronic reproduction of sound or music.

   This recording sounds awful due to the distortion.

5. An effect used in music, most commonly on guitars in rock or metal.
6. (optics) An aberration that causes magnification to change over the field of view.

Synonyms

The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates {{syn|en|...}} or {{ant|en|...}}.

• deformation
• disfigurement

Derived terms

• antiferrodistortion
• barrel distortion
• bias distortion
• bond distortion
• cognitive distortion
• counterdistortion
• digital pre-distortion
• distortional
• distortionary
• distortionist
• distortionless
• ferrodistortion
• microdistortion
• nondistortion
• pincushion distortion
• predistortion
• reality distortion field
• selective distortion
• undistortion

 

Related terms

• distort

Translations

act of distorting

• Bulgarian: изкривяване (bg) n (izkrivjavane), измятане (bg) n (izmjatane)
• Catalan: distorsió f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 扭曲 (zh) (niǔqū)

• Danish: fordrejelse, forvridning, forvrængning
• Esperanto: distordo
• Finnish: vääristäminen (fi), vääristely (fi)
• French: distorsion (fr) f
• German: Verzerrung (de) f, Verformung (de) f, Verwindung f, Verdrehung (de) f
• Greek: διαστρέβλωση (el) f (diastrévlosi), παραμόρφωση (el) f (paramórfosi)
• Italian: distorsione (it) f
• Maori: whakahawenga
• Portuguese: distorção (pt) f
• Romanian: distorsiune (ro) f
• Russian: искаже́ние (ru) n (iskažénije), искривле́ние (ru) n (iskrivlénije)
• Spanish: distorsión (es)
• Swedish: förvrängning (sv) c

result of distorting

• Bulgarian: изкривяване (bg) n (izkrivjavane), деформация (bg) f (deformacija)
• Catalan: distorsió f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 形变 (zh) (xíngbiàn)

• Czech: zkreslení n
• Finnish: vääristyminen (fi), vääristymä (fi)
• French: distorsion (fr) f
• German: Verzerrung (de) f, Verformung (de) f, Enstellung f
• Greek: διαστρέβλωση (el) f (diastrévlosi), παραμόρφωση (el) f (paramórfosi)
• Polish: zniekształcenie (pl) n
• Portuguese: distorção (pt) f
• Russian: искаже́ние (ru) n (iskažénije), искривле́ние (ru) n (iskrivlénije), дисто́рсия (ru) f (distórsija) (optical)
• Spanish: distorsión (es)
• Swedish: förvrängning (sv) pl

misrepresentation of the truth

• Bulgarian: изопачаване (bg) n (izopačavane)
• Catalan: distorsió f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 歪曲 (zh) (wāiqū)

• Finnish: vääristely (fi)
• German: Verzerrung (de) f, Verformung (de) f, Zerrbild (de) n
• Greek: διαστρέβλωση (el) f (diastrévlosi), παραποίηση (el) f (parapoíisi), διαστροφή (el) f (diastrofí)
• Hungarian: eltorzítás (hu), meghamisítás (hu)
• Portuguese: distorção (pt) f
• Russian: искаже́ние (ru) n (iskažénije)
• Swedish: förvrängning (sv) c
• Ukrainian: викривлення n (vykryvlennja)

noise

• Bulgarian: изкривяване (bg) n (izkrivjavane)
• Finnish: vääristymä (fi)
• German: Verzerrung (de) f
• Greek: παραμόρφωση (el) f (paramórfosi)
• Maori: hohōtanga
• Portuguese: distorção (pt) f
• Russian: искаже́ние (ru) n (iskažénije), искривле́ние (ru) n (iskrivlénije), дисто́рсия (ru) f (distórsija)
• Swedish: distortion (sv) c, förvränging c

effect used in music

• Danish: distortion pl
• Finnish: särö (fi)
• French: distorsion (fr) f
• German: Verzerrung (de) f
• Greek: παραμόρφωση (el) f (paramórfosi)
• Portuguese: distorção (pt) f
• Russian: дисто́ршн (ru) m (distóršn)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} corruption (fr) f, ^{(please verify)} déformation (fr) f, ^{(please verify)} aberration (fr) f

optics

• Polish: dystorsja f