as in rambling
passing from one topic to another
a digressive lecture on current events around the world
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
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 digressive
The result is digressive, elliptical, and occasionally absurd—and yet also genuinely revealing of the mental-health challenges facing pilots and the sometimes brutal social dynamics of the cockpit.
—
Inkoo Kang, New Yorker, 8 Dec. 2025
This is slightly digressive, but Tunde and his lover, early on in the novel, have this big argument in Lahaina, in Hawaii.
—Literary Hub, 3 Nov. 2025
The path to achieving this goal was already a digressive one, weaving together singing competitions, cloned dogs and a bald-capped Fielder breastfeeding from a giant puppet.
—Alison Herman, Variety, 26 May 2025
The tabloid reader commuting home on the No. 4 train was given the same all-access pass to his protean intellect and lyrical, digressive sentences as the Park Avenue neighbor of William F. Buckley’s reading him, fireside, in the more rarefied outlets.
—Ginia Bellafante, New York Times, 16 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for digressive
Inkoo Kang, New Yorker, 8 Dec. 2025
This is slightly digressive, but Tunde and his lover, early on in the novel, have this big argument in Lahaina, in Hawaii.
—Literary Hub, 3 Nov. 2025
The path to achieving this goal was already a digressive one, weaving together singing competitions, cloned dogs and a bald-capped Fielder breastfeeding from a giant puppet.
—Alison Herman, Variety, 26 May 2025
The tabloid reader commuting home on the No. 4 train was given the same all-access pass to his protean intellect and lyrical, digressive sentences as the Park Avenue neighbor of William F. Buckley’s reading him, fireside, in the more rarefied outlets.
—Ginia Bellafante, New York Times, 16 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for digressive
Recent Examples of Synonyms for digressive
Adjective
-
Her conversation was rambling and fascinating.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Mar. 2026
-
This film, so seemingly unassertive, apparently rambling and plotless, has a devastating impact and aftershock.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
27 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
While forming a global network of thinkers, the IPS has developed over the past five years to critically examine the material, discursive, and aesthetic scope of everything that might fall under the heading of postnatural.—
Catherine Taft,
Artforum,
1 Feb. 2026
-
The instructional promise of each episode was a bit, a starting point for discursive, funny, intermittently personal mini-essays that always started in Wilson’s beloved New York, but could and did make their way anywhere.—
Alison Willmore,
Vulture,
23 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Digressive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/digressive. Accessed 12 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
