tort

/tɔːt//tɔɹt/

tort noun: a wrongful act, whether intentional or negligent, regarded as non-criminal and unrelated to a contract, which causes an injury and can be remedied in civil court, usually through the awarding of damages. Also the clipping of tortoise.

Noun

tort (plural torts)

A wrongful act, whether intentional or negligent, regarded as non-criminal and unrelated to a contract, which causes an injury and can be remedied in civil court, usually through the awarding of damages.
- […] Wrong or Iniury, is in French aptly called Tort, becauſe Iniury & wrong is wreſted or crooked, being contrary to that which is right and ſtreight. […] And Britton ſaith that Tort a la ley eſt contrarye [a wrong to the law is contrary], and as aptly for the cauſe aforeſaid is iniury in English...[1628, Edw[ard] Coke, “Of Rents”, in The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for the Societe of Stationers, →OCLC, book 2, chapter 12, section 234...
- Personal actions are ſuch vvhereby a man claims a debt, or perſonal duty, or damages in lieu thereof; and likevviſe vvhereby a man claims a ſatisfaction in damages for ſome injury done to his perſon or property. The former are ſaid to be founded on contracts, the latter upon torts or vvrongs: […]...1768, William Blackstone, “Of Wrongs, and Their Remedies, Respecting the Rights of Persons”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book III (Of Private Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon...
Synonyms:

delict, tortfeasance, crime, delinquency, error, malfeasance, misdeed, misdemeanor, misdoing, offense
(obsolete) An injury or wrong.
- Then gan triumphant Trompets ſovvnd on hye, / That ſent to heuen the ecchoed report / Of their nevv ioy, and happie victory / Gainſt him, that had them long oppreſt with tort, / And faſt impriſoned in ſieged fort.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 172
- For no vvild beaſts ſhould do them any torte / There or abroad, ne vvould his maieſtye / Vſe them but vvell, vvith gracious clemencye, / As vvhome he knevv to him both faſt and true; […]1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale.”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC, signature P3...

Adjective (1)

tort

(obsolete) Twisted.
- And the firſt that came and gaue them moſt comfort was Henry Erle of Lãcaſter with yͤ wrie neck, called Tort coll [torticollis], who was brother to Thomas Erle of Lãcaſter yͭ was behedded, as ye haue heard before, who was a right vertuous & good knight as after ye ſhal here.1569, Richard Grafton, “Edwarde the Seconde”, in A Chronicle at Large and Meere History of the Affayres of Englande […], volume II, London: […] Henry Denham, […], for Richarde Tottle and Humffrey...

Adjective (2)

tort (comparative more tort, superlative most tort)

(UK, dialectal) Synonym of tart (“sharp- or sour-tasting; (figuratively) keen, severe, sharp”)

Synonyms:

tart

Adjective (3)

tort (comparative torter, superlative tortest)

(UK, dialectal, obsolete) Synonym of taut (“stretched tight; under tension”).
- Yet holds he them with tortest rein, / That they may seize and entertain / The glance that to their glance opposes, / Like fiery honey sucked from roses.1847, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Initial, Dæmonic, and Celestial Love”, in Poems, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC, part I (The Initial Love), page 158
Synonyms:

taut
(UK, dialectal, obsolete) Of a boat: watertight.

Also used as

tort is also the clipping of tortoise.

tort is also the clipping of tortoiseshell.

tort meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali

tort in Hindi

wrongful act, regarded as non-criminal and unrelated to a contract, which causes an injury: अपकृत्य apkŕtya

tort in Tamil

wrongful act, regarded as non-criminal and unrelated to a contract, which causes an injury: பொல்லாக்கு pollākku

tort in Marathi

टोर्ट

tort in Bengali

wrongful act, regarded as non-criminal and unrelated to a contract, which causes an injury: টর্ট ṭorṭo

More languagesFewer languages

tort in Kannada: ಅಪಕೃತ್ಯ apakṛtya
tort in Punjabi: ਟੋਰਟ ṭoraṭ
tort in Gujarati: ટોર્ટ
tort in Sinhala: තෝරත tōrata
tort in Nepali: अपकृत्य apakr̥tya
tort in Tagalog: pamiminsalang sinadya
tort in Arabic: الضرر في القانون
tort in Malay: tort
tort in Indonesian: pelanggaran
tort in Persian: شبهجرم
tort in Thai: ละเมิด lá-mə̂ət

Examples of tort in a sentence

The former are ſaid to be founded on contracts, the latter upon torts or vvrongs: […] of the latter all actions for treſpaſſes, nuſances, aſſaults, defamatory vvords, and the like.1768, William Blackstone, “Of Wrongs, and Their Remedies, Respecting the Rights of Persons”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book...
A tort is a legal wrong committed upon the person or property independent of contract.1891, Henry Campbell Black, “TORT”, in A Dictionary of Law […], St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 1178, column 1:

Synonyms of tort

9 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of tort

Forms of tort

Noun
plural	torts
Adjective
comparative	more tort
superlative	most tort
comparative	torter
superlative	tortest

Plural of tort: torts

Origin of tort

From Middle English tort (“(uncountable) wrong; (countable) an injury, a wrong”), from Old French tort (“misdeed, wrong”) (modern French tort (“an error, wrong; a fault”)), from Medieval Latin tortum (“injustice, wrong”), a noun use of a neuter singular participle form of Latin tortus (“crooked; twisted”), the perfect passive participle of torqueō (“to bend or twist awry, distort”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”). Cognates * Galician torto (“(adjective) bent; crooked; twisted; (noun, archaic) harm, offence; injustice, wrong, tort”) * Italian torto (“(adjective) bent; crooked; twisted; (noun, archaic) injustice, wrong”) * Norwegian Bokmål tort (dated, now only in fixed expressions) * Norwegian Nynorsk tort (dated, now only in fixed expressions) * Occitan tort * Old French tort (modern French tort) * Portuguese torto (“(adjective) bent; crooked; twisted; (noun, archaic) harm, offence; injustice, wrong”) * Spanish tuerto (“injury, offence”)

From Middle English tort, torte (“contorted, crooked; twisted”), from Old French tort, torte (“crooked; twisted”), or from its etymon Latin tortus (“crooked; twisted”): see further at etymology 1.

A variant of tart.

Words formed from tort

Phrases with tort

Words that rhyme with tort

44 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about tort

What does tort mean?: Tort means a wrongful act, whether intentional or negligent, regarded as non-criminal and unrelated to a contract, which causes an injury and can be remedied in civil court, usually through the awarding of damages.
What is tort in Hindi?: Tort in Hindi is अपकृत्य (apkŕtya). See Tort meaning in Hindi.
How do you use tort in a sentence?: The former are ſaid to be founded on contracts, the latter upon torts or vvrongs: […] of the latter all actions for treſpaſſes, nuſances, aſſaults, defamatory vvords, and the like.
What part of speech is tort?: Tort can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce tort?: Tort is pronounced /tɔːt/ (UK).
What is the plural of tort?: The plural of tort is torts.

Words near tort in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: tort (page history and authors); tort (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tort (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-tort.ogg, en-us-tort.ogg.

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