as in asides
a departure from the subject under consideration
in the middle of her description of her dog's symptoms, she went off on a tangent about its cute behavior
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Recent Examples of tangents
June 21 – July 22 Wandering down conversational tangents will be especially tempting today.
—
Tarot.com, New York Daily News, 31 Mar. 2026
The original investigation spawned two main tangents involving Becciu, once a leading Vatican cardinal and future papal contender.
—Nicole Winfield The Associated Press, Arkansas Online, 18 Mar. 2026
The original investigation spawned two main tangents involving Becciu, once a leading Vatican cardinal and future papal contender.
—ABC News, 17 Mar. 2026
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
But Streisand apparently couldn’t help herself, going off on some tangents in her post that left some respondents amused but others thinking that the entertainment legend was living up to her reputation for being self-obsessed.
—Martha Ross, Mercury News, 26 Feb. 2026
Brown kept getting sidetracked with tangents and non sequiturs, on topics both momentous and random.
—Mark Leibovich, The Atlantic, 25 Feb. 2026
But rather than let meta references guide the plot, the half-hour sitcom takes off on wild tangents that are easy to get lost in, even when that’s not the main intention.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 20 Feb. 2026
Tarot.com, New York Daily News, 31 Mar. 2026
The original investigation spawned two main tangents involving Becciu, once a leading Vatican cardinal and future papal contender.
—Nicole Winfield The Associated Press, Arkansas Online, 18 Mar. 2026
The original investigation spawned two main tangents involving Becciu, once a leading Vatican cardinal and future papal contender.
—ABC News, 17 Mar. 2026
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
But Streisand apparently couldn’t help herself, going off on some tangents in her post that left some respondents amused but others thinking that the entertainment legend was living up to her reputation for being self-obsessed.
—Martha Ross, Mercury News, 26 Feb. 2026
Brown kept getting sidetracked with tangents and non sequiturs, on topics both momentous and random.
—Mark Leibovich, The Atlantic, 25 Feb. 2026
But rather than let meta references guide the plot, the half-hour sitcom takes off on wild tangents that are easy to get lost in, even when that’s not the main intention.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 20 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tangents
Noun
-
The Artemis crew is now in a lunar flyby, during which they're expected to see both the near and far asides of the moon and engage in intense lunar observation.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
6 Apr. 2026
-
The pace of observation is furious, and even simple plot points are crosshatched with micro-incidents, asides, and gestures that overflow the boundaries of a screenplay and spill out into life at large.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
27 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Problem solving may also suffer without these low-effort digressions.—
Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez,
Fortune,
11 Apr. 2026
-
Such digressions could pose a problem in the future as the possibilities of human colonies in space become more likely.—
Devika Rao,
TheWeek,
9 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Tangents.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tangents. Accessed 21 Apr. 2026.
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