as in irrelevant
having little to do with the matter at hand
Your point is tangential to the main objective of this meeting so please save it for later.
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of tangential
Their company — which also provides curbside recycling pickup services in San Jose — played a tangential role in the 2006 indictment of San Jose’s then-mayor, Ron Gonzales, on bribery charges.
—
Nate Gartrell, The Mercury News, 16 Jan. 2025
There are implications that the two central fathers of the piece have clashed before, though the more jarring examples of tangential threads concern a performing troupe with whom Tornado has a pre-existing relationship.
—Josh Slater-Williams, IndieWire, 26 Feb. 2025
Is that a fair, if perhaps tangential, limning of this sinister quality that your poems sometimes have?
—Corey Seymour, Vogue, 6 Feb. 2025
The main selling point of our domains may be the metaphor or emotional invocations, so the connection to keywords is tangential or opaque.
—Darpan Munjal, Forbes, 22 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for tangential
Nate Gartrell, The Mercury News, 16 Jan. 2025
There are implications that the two central fathers of the piece have clashed before, though the more jarring examples of tangential threads concern a performing troupe with whom Tornado has a pre-existing relationship.
—Josh Slater-Williams, IndieWire, 26 Feb. 2025
Is that a fair, if perhaps tangential, limning of this sinister quality that your poems sometimes have?
—Corey Seymour, Vogue, 6 Feb. 2025
The main selling point of our domains may be the metaphor or emotional invocations, so the connection to keywords is tangential or opaque.
—Darpan Munjal, Forbes, 22 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for tangential
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tangential
Adjective
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For the purposes of this discussion, the cause of sea level rise is irrelevant.—
Rob Young,
The Orlando Sentinel,
24 Apr. 2025
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Tony Gilroy’s masterful series is so good that the sci-fi Star Wars of it all sometimes seems irrelevant compared to the nuanced takes on resistance and fascism.—
James Grebey,
Vulture,
23 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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The slope, or steepness, of the tangent line measures how quickly the function is changing at that point.—
Solomon Adams,
WIRED,
23 Feb. 2025
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By 1643, René Descartes had discovered a simple relationship between the curvatures of any four circles that are tangent to each other.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
10 Aug. 2023
Adjective
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Side vision, also known as peripheral vision, measures how well your eyes can see objects that are not in your central vision.—
Vanessa Caceres,
Verywell Health,
8 Apr. 2025
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This damage can result in coronary heart disease, hypertension, heart attack, stroke, aneurysms and peripheral artery disease.—
Greta Cross,
USA TODAY,
21 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Tangential.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tangential. Accessed 1 May. 2025.
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