as in aside
a departure from the subject under consideration
in the middle of her description of her dog's symptoms, she went off on a tangent about its cute behavior
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
as in tangential
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Recent Examples of tangent
Tarot.com,
New York Daily News,
31 Mar. 2026
The original investigation spawned two main tangents involving Becciu, once a leading Vatican cardinal and future papal contender.
—
Nicole Winfield The Associated Press,
Arkansas Online,
18 Mar. 2026
Leila Sloman,
Quanta Magazine,
3 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for tangent
Noun
June 21 – July 22 Wandering down conversational tangents will be especially tempting today.
—
Tarot.com,
New York Daily News,
31 Mar. 2026
The original investigation spawned two main tangents involving Becciu, once a leading Vatican cardinal and future papal contender.
—
Nicole Winfield The Associated Press,
Arkansas Online,
18 Mar. 2026
Adjective
That means mathematicians can approximate these rotations with a straight line that touches the circle at just one point — a tangent line.
—
Leila Sloman,
Quanta Magazine,
3 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for tangent
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tangent
Noun
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When the meeting proceeded into discussions about audits, Levine approached Hosseini for a brief pull-aside conversation.
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For a company synonymous with AI, the most revealing line was almost an aside.
Adjective
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There is significant worry about the status of Christian Pulisic’s calf, and there’s also a bit of tangential drama here for the Australians.
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But Sawyer held off on adding the amendment to House Bill 1094, a tangential bill requiring an audit of NCDOT’s ferry division.
Noun
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With its loose ends and digressions, Dream Me a Dream stays true to those idiosyncratic instincts while retaining enough of the welcoming glow of Dance of Love to make this an affecting farewell from an endearing eccentric.
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Reading Dyer at exactly that moment gave me permission to loosen my grip a little and allow my own digressions into the work.
Adjective
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The National Marrow Donor Program had matched him with a woman battling a rare blood disease, calling on him to donate peripheral blood stem cells through a long blood draw.
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The flare-up quickly transformed Lebanon from a peripheral concern into a central question hanging over the Iran war and the nascent peace talks.
Adjective
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Psychologists who study cognitive ability and thinking styles have found that certain forms of restlessness aren’t incidental to a sharp mind.
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These were not incidental flourishes.
Adjective
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Without ownership, documentation becomes a museum exhibit that may be informative but irrelevant.
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No detail, no matter how incomplete or far-fetched, was irrelevant to their search.
Cite this Entry
“Tangent.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tangent. Accessed 3 Jul. 2026.
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