Search Result for "torsion": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (2)

1. a tortuous and twisted shape or position;
- Example: "they built a tree house in the tortuosities of its boughs"
- Example: "the acrobat performed incredible contortions"
[syn: tortuosity, tortuousness, torsion, contortion, crookedness]

2. a twisting force;
[syn: torsion, torque]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Torsion \Tor"sion\, n. [F., fr. LL. torsio, fr. L. torquere, tortum, to twist. See Torture.] 1. The act of turning or twisting, or the state of being twisted; the twisting or wrenching of a body by the exertion of a lateral force tending to turn one end or part of it about a longitudinal axis, while the other is held fast or turned in the opposite direction. [1913 Webster] 2. (Mech.) That force with which a thread, wire, or rod of any material, returns, or tends to return, to a state of rest after it has been twisted; torsibility. [1913 Webster] Angle of torsion (of a curve) (Geom.), the indefinitely small angle between two consecutive osculating planes of a curve of double curvature. Moment of torsion (Mech.) the moment of a pair of equal and opposite couples which tend to twist a body. Torsion balance (Physics.), an instrument for estimating very minute forces, as electric or magnetic attractions and repulsions, by the torsion of a very slender wire or fiber having at its lower extremity a horizontal bar or needle, upon which the forces act. Torsion scale, a scale for weighing in which the fulcra of the levers or beams are strained wires or strips acting by torsion. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

torsion n 1: a tortuous and twisted shape or position; "they built a tree house in the tortuosities of its boughs"; "the acrobat performed incredible contortions" [syn: tortuosity, tortuousness, torsion, contortion, crookedness] 2: a twisting force [syn: torsion, torque]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

67 Moby Thesaurus words for "torsion": ambages, anamorphism, anamorphosis, anfractuosity, asymmetry, buckle, circuitousness, circumambages, circumbendibus, circumlocution, circumvolution, contortion, convolution, crinkle, crinkling, crookedness, deflection, deflexure, detorsion, deviation, diffraction, diffusion, dispersion, disproportion, distortion, flection, flexuosity, flexuousness, flexure, gnarl, imbalance, intorsion, involution, irregularity, knot, lopsidedness, meander, meandering, quirk, refraction, rivulation, scatter, screw, sinuation, sinuosity, sinuousness, skewness, slinkiness, snakiness, stress, torque, tortility, tortuosity, tortuousness, turn, turning, twist, twisting, undulation, unsymmetry, warp, wave, waving, winding, wrench, wrest, wring