deform may imply a change of shape through stress, injury, or accident of growth.
a face deformed by hatred
distort and contort both imply a wrenching from the natural or normal, but contort suggests a more involved twisting and a more grotesque and painful result.
the odd camera angle distorts the figure
disease had contorted her body
warp indicates an uneven shrinking that bends or twists out of a flat plane.
warped floorboards
Example Sentences
Her face was distorted by pain. The odd camera angle distorted her figure in the photograph. The sound of the guitar was distorted. Heat caused the plastic to distort. She felt he was distorting the facts. The story was distorted by the press. The loss of both her parents at an early age distorted her outlook on life. See More
Recent Examples on the WebDoes anyone believe this won’t produce continuous anonymous leaks that will intrude into and distort the November elections and beyond? Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 17 Aug. 2022 Webb will also show us a galaxy cluster known as SMACS 0723, where galaxies distort and magnify the light emanating from other objects behind them, a cosmic quirk that allows telescopes to spot very distant and faint galaxies farther out. Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 8 July 2022 Other contributors include lectins, which distort our neutrophils, and innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), which produce proinflammatory chemokines like interleukin-17. William A. Haseltine, Forbes, 21 Apr. 2022 There are people with totalitarian mind-sets whose first job is to obscure, distort and destroy the truth.Los Angeles Times, 8 Mar. 2022 The bill’s $369 billion in climate spending and regulation will distort energy markets and raise costs for business and consumers. The Editorial Board, WSJ, 8 Aug. 2022 The policy helped distort China's population, leading to a fast-aging population with too many men. Nicholas Gordon, Fortune, 12 July 2022 The Tronsmart Onyx Ace Pro produces a big sound, but it’s a refined sound that has an impressive bass that doesn’t distort. Mark Sparrow, Forbes, 4 June 2022 Musk has accused Twitter of misrepresenting the size of its user base to distort its value and cited the issue of fake accounts as a main reason for abandoning his offer to buy the company.Fortune, 6 Aug. 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Latin distortus, past participle of distorquēre, from dis- + torquēre to twist — more at torture entry 1