as in tangents
a departure from the subject under consideration
the professor's frequent and extended digressions are the stuff of campus legend
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Recent Examples of digressions
The play is stacked with laugh lines and Greenberg’s deliciously writerly digressions.
—
Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 10 Feb. 2026
The plot takes quite a few wild digressions on our heroes’ way to meeting Hamm (who also gives an excellent performance as himself).
—Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 26 Jan. 2026
The conversation has been necessarily condensed for clarity and to take out vast numbers of further digressions.
—Literary Hub, 6 Jan. 2026
But in the small areas of freedom McAvoy allows himself outside the main thrust of the familiar rags-to-riches-to-regret arc there are sharp little digressions and darker shadowy corners that suggest there’s more to the film, and to McAvoy as a filmmaker, than initially meets the eye.
—Jessica Kiang, Variety, 4 Oct. 2025
There's no explicit in-game reward for almost all of these random digressions, and your fellow cut-scene hikers will frequently explicitly warn you that there's no point in climbing some structure or another.
—ArsTechnica, 23 Sep. 2025
His essays — an array of digressions on meme culture, monetary theory and markets — remain widely read in crypto circles.
—Bloomberg, Mercury News, 21 Aug. 2025
That is why the film is not just telling a story in a totally straightforward way, but makes these kinds of little cinematic digressions.
—Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 6 Aug. 2025
Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 10 Feb. 2026
The plot takes quite a few wild digressions on our heroes’ way to meeting Hamm (who also gives an excellent performance as himself).
—Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 26 Jan. 2026
The conversation has been necessarily condensed for clarity and to take out vast numbers of further digressions.
—Literary Hub, 6 Jan. 2026
But in the small areas of freedom McAvoy allows himself outside the main thrust of the familiar rags-to-riches-to-regret arc there are sharp little digressions and darker shadowy corners that suggest there’s more to the film, and to McAvoy as a filmmaker, than initially meets the eye.
—Jessica Kiang, Variety, 4 Oct. 2025
There's no explicit in-game reward for almost all of these random digressions, and your fellow cut-scene hikers will frequently explicitly warn you that there's no point in climbing some structure or another.
—ArsTechnica, 23 Sep. 2025
His essays — an array of digressions on meme culture, monetary theory and markets — remain widely read in crypto circles.
—Bloomberg, Mercury News, 21 Aug. 2025
That is why the film is not just telling a story in a totally straightforward way, but makes these kinds of little cinematic digressions.
—Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 6 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for digressions
tangents
Noun
-
The conversation is lively, with people often chatting over each other and going on tangents.—
Jourdain Searles,
HollywoodReporter,
3 Feb. 2026
-
All in all, the show tackles a thoughtful premise — even two people speaking the same linguistic language will need their thoughts translated — and almost got it right but took a couple of tangents after the halfway mark.—
Hannah Abraham,
Forbes.com,
29 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Digressions.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/digressions. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.
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