# tort

> English word · Noun · IPA /tɔːt/ · frequency rank #25,620

## Definitions
1. 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.
2. An injury or wrong.

## Etymology
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”)

## Easily confused with
- **TT** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-tt)
- **try** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-try)
- **toy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-toy)
- **tow** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-tow)
- **tri** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-tri)
- **TOS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-tos)
- **tot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-tot)
- **tre** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-tre)
- **tra** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-tra)
- **tru** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-tru)
- **tut** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-tut)
- **TRP** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-trp)
- **tur** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-tur)
- **TOV** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-tov)
- **Tyr** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-tyr)
- **turn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-turn)
- **town** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-town)
- **tour** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-tour)
- **toys** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-toys)
- **toss** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tort-vs-toss)

## Common misspellings (5)
`otrt`, `torrt`, `tortt`, `totr`, `ttort`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/tort