tangle vs twist

tangle

noun
  • A tangled twisted mass. 

  • Any large type of seaweed, especially a species of Laminaria. 

  • An argument, conflict, dispute, or fight. 

  • A complicated or confused state or condition. 

  • A paired helical fragment of tau protein found in a nerve cell and associated with Alzheimer's disease. 

  • Any long hanging thing, even a lanky person. 

  • A region of the projection of a knot such that the knot crosses its perimeter exactly four times. 

  • An instrument consisting essentially of an iron bar to which are attached swabs, or bundles of frayed rope, or other similar substances, used to capture starfishes, sea urchins, and other similar creatures living at the bottom of the sea. 

  • A form of art which consists of sections filled with repetitive patterns. 

verb
  • To mix together or intertwine. 

  • To enter into an argument, conflict, dispute, or fight. 

  • To catch and hold. 

  • To become mixed together or intertwined. 

twist

noun
  • A twisting force. 

  • A sliver of lemon peel added to a cocktail, etc. 

  • A distortion to the meaning of a word or passage. 

  • A sudden bend (or short series of bends) in a road, path, etc. 

  • The form given in twisting. 

  • An unexpected turn in a story, tale, etc. 

  • A roll or baton of baked dough or pastry in a twisted shape. 

  • The spiral course of the rifling of a gun barrel or a cannon. 

  • A type of dance characterised by rotating one’s hips. See Twist (dance) on Wikipedia for more details. 

  • A strong individual tendency or bent; inclination. 

  • The degree of stress or strain when twisted. 

  • Anything twisted, or the act of twisting. 

  • A small roll of tobacco. 

  • A sprain, especially to the ankle. 

  • A girl, a woman. 

  • A material for gun barrels, consisting of iron and steel twisted and welded together. 

  • A type of thread made from two filaments twisted together. 

  • A rotation of the body when diving. 

verb
  • To turn the ends of something, usually thread, rope etc., in opposite directions, often using force. 

  • To wreathe; to wind; to encircle; to unite by intertexture of parts. 

  • To distort or change the truth or meaning of words when repeating. 

  • In the game of blackjack (pontoon or twenty-one), to be dealt another card. 

  • To turn a knob etc. 

  • To join together by twining one part around another. 

  • To wind into; to insinuate. 

  • To form a twist (in any of the above noun meanings). 

  • To wind; to follow a bendy or wavy course; to have many bends. 

  • To injure (a body part) by bending it in the wrong direction. 

  • To cause to rotate. 

  • To contort; to writhe; to complicate; to crook spirally; to convolve. 

  • To coax. 

  • To dance the twist (a type of dance characterised by twisting one's hips). 

How often have the words tangle and twist occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )