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
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Recent Examples of tangent
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
EW.com, 30 Apr. 2025
Critics, however, often take issue with unusual, and sometimes bizarre, tangents during public remarks.
—Jason Lemon, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for tangent
Noun
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
Adjective
Controversial former cohost Meghan McCain recently went on a tangent about Markle following the release of the first trailer for Markle's Netflix lifestyle docuseries.
—EW.com, 30 Apr. 2025
Critics, however, often take issue with unusual, and sometimes bizarre, tangents during public remarks.
—Jason Lemon, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for tangent
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tangent
Noun
-
As an aside, what few parties have tried is building a hyper-local newsroom on a shoestring budget, tying it to a mobile phone app, and charging subscribers very low prices for getting all the tea about what’s happening in their neighborhoods.—
John Werner,
Forbes.com,
3 July 2025
-
Wolodarsky’s voice has such a wallflower quality to it, apt for Kylie, whose asides are barely acknowledged half the time.—
Joe Reid,
Vulture,
12 June 2025
Adjective
-
At times, Pinho includes dry scenes where tangential characters address the camera with historical facts.—
Murtada Elfadl,
Variety,
28 May 2025
-
Baby Billy’s success or failure is tangential to the Gemstones at large, so the writing (and Goggins’s performance) can be as liberated as Billy’s ball sack.—
Scott Tobias,
Vulture,
28 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
But that’s a digression, and one imaging rationality about a tax code that screams irrationality.—
John Tamny,
Forbes.com,
27 May 2025
-
In conversation, Lee is grizzled and gregarious, quick to cackle, and prone to starry-eyed digressions about music’s overwhelming power and his partner’s formidable songwriting chops.—
Elias Leight,
Billboard,
1 May 2025
Adjective
-
Eye Exercises and Training Techniques Peripheral awareness: While focusing on one object on the wall, try to identify objects in your peripheral vision.—
Patty Weasler,
Verywell Health,
28 June 2025
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Yet many firms continue to apply outdated assumptions or treat women’s needs as peripheral.—
Carrie McCabe,
Forbes.com,
26 June 2025
Adjective
-
The 42nd Ward is currently subject to a late-hour liquor license moratorium, according to the area’s alderman, Brendan Reilly, and Artis had applied for an incidental liquor license along with a food license.—
Caroline Kubzansky,
Chicago Tribune,
3 July 2025
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The sweltering conditions were perhaps an incidental metaphor for the pressure the industry is feeling as the global luxury industry experiences a troubling slowdown.—
Alice Pfeiffer,
CNN Money,
1 July 2025
Adjective
-
Geography becomes irrelevant when AI handles the grunt work.—
Steven Wolfe Pereira,
Forbes.com,
3 July 2025
-
Talking about Linux in this context is pretty irrelevant anyways, since the Xbox consoles run a variant of Windows.—
Will Greenwald,
PC Magazine,
1 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Tangent.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tangent. Accessed 13 Jul. 2025.
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