as in aside
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
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
as in tangential
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of tangent
Matt Grobar, Deadline, 17 Oct. 2025
Like his film Bacurau, The Secret Agent bends back on its own genre, indulging in tangents and side characters and tonal shifts throughout.
—Vulture Staff, Vulture, 23 Sep. 2025
Darren Franich, EW.com, 19 Aug. 2022
Austin’s former president then went on a tangent talking about Reese’s eggs, Cap’n Crunch and berries.
—Frank Pallotta, CNN, 17 Apr. 2022
See All Example Sentences for tangent
Noun
Comprising a mix of anxiety, cerebral tangents, and a dash of absurdist whimsy, Nancherla’s first full-length special Hopeful Potato, directed by Eliza Skinner, premieres December 15.
—Adjective
An early tangent veers into naval warfare, with various forces fighting for crucial shipping lanes.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for tangent
Noun
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As an aside, if the home sells for more than the original list price, the principal keeps all the upside.—
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Twichell has written often about her practice of Zen Buddhism, and one of her rare asides, offered after a particularly sad poem, had the feeling of ancient wisdom.—
Adjective
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And yet off the court, an eventful period to say the least, in several cases with a degree of Heat impact, some directly, some tangential.—
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Since its 2023 debut, Peacock's The Traitors has captured the zeitgeist thanks to its motley crew of actors, comedians, reality TV stars, and tangential British royalty.—
Noun
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The conversation has been necessarily condensed for clarity and to take out vast numbers of further digressions.—
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The logic of life allows for such digressions, and such digressions occur in miniature in The Secret Agent: in the way Sebastiana holds court with Armando and his fellow refugees, or Hans dances in the street during a carnival celebration.—
Adjective
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The system uses the infrared wavelength—invisible to the naked eye—as opposed to visible light to prevent the signals from interfering with the residual peripheral vision the subjects still have.—
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For players, the potential advantages include a much larger accessible library, the combination of local hardware, cloud, and PC options in a single device, and stronger peripheral and mod support typical of Windows.—
Adjective
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That’s not incidental—that’s intentional.—
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The emotional and financial toll she has been forced to shoulder is not incidental.—
Adjective
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Sure, pundits and Twitter philosophers love to portray bowl games as irrelevant relics of the past that nobody cares about anymore.—
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The characters are lying, to themselves and to each other, but the role of the audience in believing or not believing their lies is totally irrelevant.—
Cite this Entry
“Tangent.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tangent. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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