This rare abstract plural noun describes a state of mental or moral distortion, a twisting of perception that leads to warped judgment. The root suggests something bent out of shape or turned aside from straightness. In Isaiah 19, it characterizes the 'spirit of confusion' that YHWH will pour out on Egypt, causing their counselors to give foolish advice and their princes to lead the nation astray. The term captures not just error but systematic distortion, as if the very faculty of judgment has been bent and twisted, making straight thinking impossible.