Word.ws English Dictionary

tortured phrases

tortured phrases is the plural of tortured phrase.

Meaning of tortured phrase

Noun

tortured phrase (plural tortured phrases)

  1. (neologism) A nonsensical phrase created by replacing words with synonyms in order to disguise plagiarism, typically as a result of "text spinning".
    • Our study introduces the concept of tortured phrases: unexpected weird phrases in lieu of established ones, such as ‘counterfeit consciousness’ instead of ‘artificial intelligence.’[2021 July 21, Cabanac, Guillaume; Labbé, Cyril; Magazinov, Alexander, “Tortured phrases: A dubious writing style emerging in science. Evidence of critical issues affecting established journals”, in...
    Synonyms:
    Rogetism
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see tortured, phrase.

Questions about tortured phrases

What is tortured phrases the plural of?
Tortured phrases is the plural of tortured phrase.

Words near tortured phrases in the dictionary

  1. torture-tested
  2. torture-testing
  3. torture-tests
  4. tortured
  5. tortured phrase
  6. tortured phrases
  7. torturedly
  8. torturedness
  9. torturee
  10. torturees
  11. torturelike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tortured phrases (page history and authors); tortured phrase (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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