distortion vs gnarl

distortion and gnarl both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
distortion	Yes	No	No	No
gnarl	Yes	No	Yes	No

As nouns, gnarl is a hyponym of distortion; that is, gnarl is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than distortion:

Other hyponyms of distortion include contortion, crookedness, torsion, tortuosity, tortuousness, buckle, warp, knot.

distortion (noun)	gnarl (noun)
the act of distorting something so it seems to mean something it was not intended to mean	something twisted and tight and swollen
the mistake of misrepresenting the facts
a change for the worse
an optical phenomenon resulting from the failure of a lens or mirror to produce a good image
a change (usually undesired) in the waveform of an acoustic or analog electrical signal; the difference between two measurements of a signal (as between the input and output signal)
a shape resulting from distortion

distortion (verb)	gnarl (verb)
	make complaining remarks or noises under one's breath
	twist into a state of deformity