Used in a Sentence

tangent

Definitions, parts of speech, synonyms, and sentence examples for tangent.

Editorial note

A slight tangent: another non-standard way of communicating high-dimensional data visually is to render it as human faces.

Examples14
Definitions4
Parts of speech2

Quick take

A topic nearly unrelated to the main topic, but having a point in common with it.

Meaning at a glance

The clearest senses and uses of tangent gathered in one view.

noun

A topic nearly unrelated to the main topic, but having a point in common with it.

adjective

Of a topic, only loosely related to a main topic.

noun

(differential geometry) A straight line touching a curve at a single point without crossing it there.

Definitions

Core meanings and parts of speech for tangent.

noun

A topic nearly unrelated to the main topic, but having a point in common with it.

adjective

Of a topic, only loosely related to a main topic.

noun

(differential geometry) A straight line touching a curve at a single point without crossing it there.

noun

(music) A small metal blade in a clavichord that strikes the strings to produce sound.

Example sentences

1

A slight tangent: another non-standard way of communicating high-dimensional data visually is to render it as human faces.

2

And sorry it's a little tangent and hardly related to the app, but order-by-activity isn't exactly new or appealing to me.

3

That is in fact my whole point; other people keep veering off on a tangent.

4

On a tangent, a great many people have positively woeful understanding of biology.

5

On the tangent of the protocol as the protocol, I also note that it is meant to be exclusive.

6

Taking it off the rails into a tangent can happen in chat rooms.

7

That I had nothing more to say on that tangent is why I made a separate comment for bare-metal, cloud hosting.

8

Leaving aside the tangent in your comment (we were talking about governments having access to your encrypted data, not about Free Software)...

9

I'm on a tangent here, but I really think that tech needs to heal itself, and we're a long way form it.

10

The first tangent is 2012 (or maybe 2007, I dunno time is a blur).

11

Ok this article is good but the tangent into the singularity is just stupid: >In fact, forget about worms—we barely have computers powerful enough to emulate the hardware of a Super Nintendo.

12

But as I said, this is all a bit of a tangent.

Proper noun examples

1

Tangent: a salary of $50k seems absurdly low for a web developer in Seattle.

2

Tangent, but several friends said I should look into being a Scrum Master.

Frequently asked questions

Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.

How do you use tangent in a sentence?

A slight tangent: another non-standard way of communicating high-dimensional data visually is to render it as human faces.

What does tangent mean?

A topic nearly unrelated to the main topic, but having a point in common with it.

What part of speech is tangent?

tangent is commonly used as noun, adjective.