Word.ws English Dictionary

tormenting

tormenting is the present participle and gerund of torment.

Meaning of torment

Verb

torment (third-person singular simple present torments, present participle tormenting, simple past and past participle tormented)

  1. (transitive) To cause severe suffering to (stronger than to vex but weaker than to torture.)
    • The child tormented the flies by pulling their wings off.

See all 4 meanings of torment

Adjective

tormenting (comparative more tormenting, superlative most tormenting)

  1. Involving or causing torment.
    Synonyms:
    tormentous

Noun

tormenting (plural tormentings)

  1. The act by which somebody is tormented.
    • If Laura really entertained the hope she mentioned, she was miserably disappointed; for Lady Pelham remitted not a jot of her tormentings.1832, Mary Brunton, Self Control, page 335

Synonyms of tormenting

Forms of tormenting

Adjective
comparativemore tormenting
superlativemost tormenting
Noun
pluraltormentings

Words formed from tormenting

Questions about tormenting

What does tormenting mean?
Tormenting means involving or causing torment.
What is tormenting the present participle and gerund of?
Tormenting is the present participle and gerund of torment.
What part of speech is tormenting?
Tormenting can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near tormenting in the dictionary

  1. tormentful
  2. tormentil
  3. tormentilla
  4. tormentillas
  5. tormentils
  6. tormenting
  7. tormentingly
  8. tormentingness
  9. tormentings
  10. tormentive
  11. tormentless

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tormenting (page history and authors); torment (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “tormenting.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tormenting. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.