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tortious  ~  tortuous  ~  torturous

[different pronunciation]

“Tortious” (adjective that comes from the noun ‘tort’) means ‘(something to do with law) where the master is or is not responsible for the wrong or damaging conduct of his servant’,

e.g.     The opinions of some law making bodies differ in treating the liability of a master for the tortious conduct of his servant.

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“Tortuous” (adjective) means ‘(of a path, road, way, stream or river, progress, negotiations, explanation, trails, ride on horse back or bike, etc) that has many bends, ups and downs, and therefore very difficult to go along; very complicated and long, and so, very difficult to understand or follow’,

e.g.

The only access to the hermitage is a tortuous mountain track.

His academic progress was slow and tortuous; and his teachers had to show a lot of patience.

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“Torturous” (adjective) means ‘(of an experience, task, activity) very painful and/or unpleasant’,

e.g.

He gave up learning English altogether because of the torturous special language classes!

She has lived a miserable life in her husband’s torturous memories since his death five years ago.

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