To distort is to twist or change the shape, sound, or meaning of something so that it no longer looks or seems true or normal. It can be physical, like a bent image, or mental, like a misleading story.
From Latin 'distortus', past participle of 'distorquere' meaning 'to twist apart', from 'dis-' and 'torquere' meaning 'to twist'. The word kept both the literal and figurative sense of twisting.
Distortion isn’t just lying; it’s twisting. A distorted fact often starts as something true that’s been stretched, cropped, or bent until it misleads more than it informs.
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