To distort means to twist or change something so much that it becomes misleading, inaccurate, or unrecognizable. When you look at yourself in a funhouse mirror, it distorts your reflection, making your head huge, your legs tiny, or your body all wavy. The mirror isn't showing the truth anymore.

People can distort information too. If your friend tells a story about what happened at recess but exaggerates parts and leaves out important details, they're distorting the truth. The story might be based on real events, but it's been twisted so much that it no longer represents what actually happened. A distortion is the twisted version itself: “That news article was full of distortions.”

Sound can also be distorted. When a speaker is turned up too loud, the music gets fuzzy and harsh: that's audio distortion. Your voice might sound distorted on a bad phone connection.

The key idea is that something real gets changed or warped until it misrepresents the original. A slight change isn't distortion. It's when the change is significant enough that people get the wrong impression or can't recognize what something used to be.