as in rambling
passing from one topic to another
a digressive lecture on current events around the world
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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
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Shinjuku Gyoen is a rambling blend of European and Japanese formal gardens that becomes a focal point of the cherry blossom season in late March.—
Stephen Kelly,
TheWeek,
26 Mar. 2026
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The four leads are overconfident and loutish, spending their time drinking, rambling, and clumsily working through their worries about the future.—
James Folta,
Literary Hub,
25 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Real Man Adventures isn’t broken up into chapter-length sections of narrative, but rather brief, discursive essays.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
12 Mar. 2026
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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
Cite this Entry
“Digressive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/digressive. Accessed 1 Apr. 2026.
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