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.
Related Words
Relevance
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of tangential
The Houthis made a similar threat during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and killed at least nine mariners and sank four ships in over 100 attacks, often targeting vessels with tangential or no ties to Israel.
—
Jon Gambrell,
Chicago Tribune,
8 June 2026
Kidd’s relationship to the trade, even if tangential, became a defining point in his tenure as the Mavericks’ head coach.
—
Mac Engel
may 20,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
20 May 2026
Instead of solving the full optimization problem in a brute-force way, TFC allows key physical constraints (like leaving Earth in a tangential burn) to be built directly into the mathematical formulation.
—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
17 May 2026
Over the coming months, the police remained tight-lipped about their investigation, with updates often emerging in tangential court documents.
—
Jon Blistein,
Rolling Stone,
20 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for tangential
Jon Gambrell,
Chicago Tribune,
8 June 2026
Kidd’s relationship to the trade, even if tangential, became a defining point in his tenure as the Mavericks’ head coach.
—
Mac Engel
may 20,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
20 May 2026
Instead of solving the full optimization problem in a brute-force way, TFC allows key physical constraints (like leaving Earth in a tangential burn) to be built directly into the mathematical formulation.
—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
17 May 2026
Over the coming months, the police remained tight-lipped about their investigation, with updates often emerging in tangential court documents.
—
Jon Blistein,
Rolling Stone,
20 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for tangential
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tangential
Adjective
-
To me that’s irrelevant in terms of this storytelling.
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Whether the governmental entity later does anything with the complaint (here, the Board did not) is irrelevant.
Adjective
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That means mathematicians can approximate these rotations with a straight line that touches the circle at just one point — a tangent line.
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The slope, or steepness, of the tangent line measures how quickly the function is changing at that point.
Adjective
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Ciba treats them not as sweet peripheral matter, but as records of reading under pressure.
-
The frontline team member, the mid-level manager navigating competing priorities, the customer-facing employee absorbing feedback in real time—these people are not peripheral to your strategy.
Cite this Entry
“Tangential.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tangential. Accessed 27 Jun. 2026.
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