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
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of tangent
Lance Eliot, Forbes, 31 Dec. 2024
Among them: Go on lots of tangents on topics like hobbies and your family, and feign technological ineptitude.
—Ali Watkins, New York Times, 25 Nov. 2024
Anatola Araba, ELLE, 1 Sep. 2022
An early tangent veers into naval warfare, with various forces fighting for crucial shipping lanes.
—Darren Franich, EW.com, 19 Aug. 2022
See all Example Sentences for tangent 
Noun
On a different topic but related tangent, even lawyers have gotten caught off-guard by overly relying on AI to provide legal expertise when the AI was completely mistaken, see my analysis at the link here.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes, 31 Dec. 2024
Among them: Go on lots of tangents on topics like hobbies and your family, and feign technological ineptitude.
—Ali Watkins, New York Times, 25 Nov. 2024
Adjective
This imaginary friend guides him through the tangent universe, encourages him to commit a series of crimes, and ends up triggering a chain of supernatural events.
—Anatola Araba, ELLE, 1 Sep. 2022
An early tangent veers into naval warfare, with various forces fighting for crucial shipping lanes.
—Darren Franich, EW.com, 19 Aug. 2022
See all Example Sentences for tangent
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tangent
Noun
-
The book follows Tom’s moral development, guided by three matriarchal fairies—with political and scientific asides—and the whole can be read as an allegory for the moral principles inhering in evolutionary processes.—
Ben Woollard,
JSTOR Daily,
29 Jan. 2025
-
As an aside, Guentzel’s agent is Ben Hankinson, who works for the same firm, Octagon, as Rantanen’s agent, Scott.—
Pierre LeBrun,
The Athletic,
25 Jan. 2025
Adjective
-
Is that a fair, if perhaps tangential, limning of this sinister quality that your poems sometimes have?—
Corey Seymour,
Vogue,
6 Feb. 2025
-
The main selling point of our domains may be the metaphor or emotional invocations, so the connection to keywords is tangential or opaque.—
Darpan Munjal,
Forbes,
22 Dec. 2024
Noun
-
Organizational and systems theories suggest that introducing an organizing entity into a competitive environment can minimize digression, maximize synergy, and optimize performance—provided common goals and shared values exist.—
Luis E. Romero,
Forbes,
23 Jan. 2025
-
To sustain that illusion, Corbet also sticks with a conventional, unquestioned naturalism, a straightforward narrative continuity that proceeds as if on tracks and allows for none of the seeming digressions and spontaneity that would make its characters feel real.—
Richard Brody,
The New Yorker,
3 Jan. 2025
Adjective
-
Waldock said the helicopter pilots, with their night vision goggles interfering with their peripheral vision, may have wrongly focused on a plane that took off just before the collision.—
Gary Fields,
Los Angeles Times,
15 Feb. 2025
-
The worms migrate through the blood or along peripheral nerves to get to the central nervous system.—
Ars Technica,
Ars Technica,
13 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
As many researchers have similarly pointed out, Zumthor argues that the vocal aspect of performance was not incidental to the meaning and impact of the texts, but was integral to it.—
David Silverberg,
JSTOR Daily,
29 Jan. 2025
-
This gives you more wiggle room in your budget to cover fees and other incidental expenses that come with purchasing a new set of wheels.—
Jasmin Suknanan,
CNBC,
27 Jan. 2025
Adjective
-
Utilitarianism has died a rough death in the content mines, because views equal money, and if the pursuit of views is unchecked by ethics, then other people’s privacy becomes irrelevant.—
Kelsey McKinney,
Rolling Stone,
8 Feb. 2025
-
In the end, all the pre-festival chatter is pretty irrelevant, mind.—
Max Goldbart,
Deadline,
7 Feb. 2025
Thesaurus Entries Near tangent
Cite this Entry
“Tangent.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tangent. Accessed 22 Feb. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share