as in irrelevant
having little to do with the matter at hand
Your point is tangential to the main objective of this meeting so please save it for later.
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Examples Sentences
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Recent Examples of tangential
One of the clear, if tangential, takeaways from Monsó’s book is that predation is a very tough business.
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Kathryn Schulz, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2024
The clip that Baier asked Harris to react to was actually of Trump (James Austin Johnson) making one of his tangential ramblings at an all-female town hall–the one filled with his supporters, which Fox didn’t disclose.
—William Vaillancourt, Rolling Stone, 20 Oct. 2024
The caliber resulted in the filing of six patents for its tangential brake, dual-function spring mechanism, flexible corrector, dual-function spring, flexible plate, and positioning mechanism.
—Paige Reddinger, Robb Report, 17 Oct. 2024
This is a goofy, tangential start to a book devoted to the foreign policy of the Biden presidency.
—Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 11 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for tangential 
Kathryn Schulz, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2024
The clip that Baier asked Harris to react to was actually of Trump (James Austin Johnson) making one of his tangential ramblings at an all-female town hall–the one filled with his supporters, which Fox didn’t disclose.
—William Vaillancourt, Rolling Stone, 20 Oct. 2024
The caliber resulted in the filing of six patents for its tangential brake, dual-function spring mechanism, flexible corrector, dual-function spring, flexible plate, and positioning mechanism.
—Paige Reddinger, Robb Report, 17 Oct. 2024
This is a goofy, tangential start to a book devoted to the foreign policy of the Biden presidency.
—Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 11 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for tangential
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tangential
Adjective
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Meanwhile, Smartmatic's lawyers argued that the indictment is irrelevant to their lawsuit.Daniel R. Depetris, Newsweek, 5 Dec. 2024
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While many of these Indigenous AI projects are in their early stages, Running Wolf hopes programs like his will be irrelevant in a decade or two.Iris Kim, NBC News, 29 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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By 1643, René Descartes had discovered a simple relationship between the curvatures of any four circles that are tangent to each other.Quanta Magazine, Quanta Magazine, 10 Aug. 2023
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That leaves us with the tangent function.Rhett Allain, Wired, 14 Mar. 2022
Adjective
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Movement intention originates in the brain, which sends electrical impulses through the peripheral nerves to tell the muscle to contract.Emily Mullin, WIRED, 9 Dec. 2024
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None of these peripheral characters feel fully sketched out, despite the actors trying to liven things up; at least Crowe lends gravitas and a sense of anarchy to his nightmare of a patriarch, and Nivola seems to be having fun prior to his CGI transformation thing.David Fear, Rolling Stone, 5 Dec. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near tangential
Cite this Entry
“Tangential.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tangential. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.
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