Meaning & use
tortious act
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountablelegallawformal
A wrongful act that harms someone and can lead to a civil lawsuit for damages.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a tortious act' or 'several tortious acts'.
Patterns
- commit a tortious act
- a tortious act against someone
- be liable for a tortious act
The company was sued for a tortious act that damaged the claimant's business.
Driving while distracted can amount to a tortious act if it injures another road user.
The judge found that no tortious act had occurred because the harm was purely economic.
nouncountablelegallawformal
Behavior by an official or company that wrongly interferes with someone's rights but is not a crime.
Grammar: Used mainly in formal legal writing; everyday speech would say 'a wrongful act' or 'a civil wrong'.
Patterns
- allege a tortious act
- a tortious act by someone
- recover damages for a tortious act
The workers alleged a tortious act by their employer after confidential files were leaked.
Her lawyer argued that the search was a tortious act, even though no criminal charge followed.
Word forms
| plural | tortious acts |
|---|
Common combinations
- commit a tortious act
- The firm was accused of committing a tortious act against a former client.
- allege a tortious act
- The complaint alleges a tortious act by two senior managers.
- liability for a tortious act
- Insurance may cover liability for a tortious act in some policies.
- a tortious act causing harm
- Only a tortious act causing harm gives the victim a right to sue.
Synonyms and how they differ
- civil wrong
- A broader everyday phrase covering the same idea; 'tortious act' is the formal legal term used in court documents.
- wrongful act
- More general and can also describe criminal or moral wrongdoing, whereas a tortious act specifically grounds a civil claim.
- tort
- The legal category or the wrong itself; 'tortious act' stresses the particular act that was done.
Word family
- tort noun
- A civil wrong for which a court can award damages.
- tortiously adverb
- In a way that amounts to a tort.
- tortfeasor noun
- The person who commits a tort.
- tortious adjective
- Describing conduct that is a tort.
Commonly confused: tortious act or tortuous? tortious act or torturous?
tortious act vs tortuous
'Tortuous' means full of twists or very complicated, and is often confused in spelling with 'tortious', which relates to a legal wrong.
tortious act vs torturous
'Torturous' means extremely painful or slow, like torture; it has nothing to do with civil liability.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'tortious act' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Tortious act' means a civil wrong that can lead to a lawsuit, as in the waste-dumping example. Option 0 confuses it with 'tortuous' (twisting), option 2 is nonsense, and option 3 wrongly treats it as a friendly or positive act.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tortious act”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.