Translation

曲がりくねった / 複雑で回りくどい / 入り組んだ

Meaning

Tortuous means full of twists and turns, either literally like a road or figuratively like an argument, legal process, or explanation. It suggests something is indirect and hard to follow. The learner trap is confusing it with torturous, which means extremely painful or like torture.

Examples

• 山道は曲がりくねっていて、運転に集中が必要でした。
  The mountain road was tortuous and required careful driving.
• その法律の説明は入り組んでいて、理解しにくいものでした。
  The legal explanation was tortuous and hard to follow.