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
There are no needless digressions, and their architecture is as robust and tightly engineered as their characters are fully fleshed.
—
Emma Madden, Los Angeles Times, 2 Mar. 2026
Her erudite digressions and granular readings add up to a kind of literary procedural.
—Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 17 Feb. 2026
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
Emma Madden, Los Angeles Times, 2 Mar. 2026
Her erudite digressions and granular readings add up to a kind of literary procedural.
—Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 17 Feb. 2026
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for digressions
tangents
Noun
-
The Story Behind Gomez’s AirDrop Name In one of the episode’s more amusing tangents, Gomez shared the story behind her iPhone’s AirDrop name.—
Ryan Brennan,
Miami Herald,
5 Mar. 2026
-
At this point, the joke veers into tangents.—
Kathryn VanArendonk,
Vulture,
26 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Digressions.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/digressions. Accessed 12 Mar. 2026.
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