tangent

English

Wikipedia

A straight line tangent to a curve

Tangent function

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtæn.dʒənt/

Etymology

From Latin tangentem, the accusative of tangēns (“touching”) (in the phrase līnea tangēns (“a touching line”)), the present participle of the verb tangō (“touch”, v), from Proto-Indo-European *tag-, *taǵ- (“to touch”). Cognate with Old English þaccian (“to touch lightly, pat, stroke”). More at thack, thwack.

Noun

tangent (plural tangents)

1. (geometry) A straight line touching a curve at a single point without crossing it there.
2. (trigonometry) In a right triangle, the ratio of the length of the side opposite the angle to the length of the side adjacent to the angle. Symbols: tan, tg
3. A topic nearly unrelated to the main topic, but having a point in common with it.

   I believe we went off onto a tangent when we started talking about monkeys on unicycles at his retirement party.

   • 1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 1, Well Tackled!^[1]:

     “Uncle Barnaby was always father and mother to me,” Benson broke in; then after a pause his mind flew off at a tangent. “Is old Hannah all right—in the will, I mean?”

   • 2009: Stuart Heritage, Hecklerspray, Friday the 22^nd of May in 2009 at 1 o’clock p.m., “Jon & Kate Latest: People You Don’t Know Do Crap You Don’t Care About”

     Jon & Kate Plus 8 is a show based on two facts: (1) Jon and Kate Gosselin have eight children, and (2) the word ‘Kate’ rhymes with the word ‘eight’. One suspects that if Kate were ever to have another child, a shady network executive would urge her to put it in a binbag with a brick and drop it down a well. But this is just a horrifying tangent.

4. A small metal blade by which a clavichord produces sound.

Derived terms

• arctangent
• cotangent
• hyberbolic tangent

Related terms

• tangential

Translations

in geometry

• Arabic: مماس (ar) (mumaass) m
• Catalan: tangent f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 切線 (cmn), 切线 (cmn) (qiēxiàn)

• Czech: tečna (cs) f
• Dutch: raaklijn (nl) f
• Esperanto: tanĝanto (eo)
• Finnish: tangentti (fi), sivuaja (fi)
• French: tangente (fr) f
• German: Tangente (de) f
• Greek: εφαπτομένη (el) (efaptoméni) f
• Icelandic: snertill (is) m

• Japanese: 接線 (ja) (せっせん, sessen)
• Manx: tanjent (gv) m
• Norwegian: tangent (no) m
• Polish: styczna (pl) f
• Portuguese: tangente (pt) f
• Romanian: tangentă (ro) f
• Russian: касательная (ru) (kasátel'naja) f
• Spanish: tangente (es) f
• Swedish: tangent (sv) c
• Telugu: తిర్యగ్రేఖ (tiryagraekha)
• Turkish: teğet (tr)

in trigonometry

• Afrikaans: tangens (af), tangense (af) pl, raaklyn (af), raaklyne (af) pl
• Arabic: ظل الزاوية (ar) (Zill al-zaawira) m
• Catalan: tangent f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 正切 (cmn) (zhèngqiē)

• Czech: tangens (cs) m
• Dutch: tangens (nl) m
• Esperanto: tangento (eo)
• Finnish: tangentti (fi)
• French: tangente (fr) f
• German: Tangens (de) m
• Greek: εφαπτομένη (el) (efaptoméni) f

• Icelandic: tangens (is) m
• Japanese: タンジェント (ja) (tanjento), 正接 (ja) (せいせつ, seisetsu)
• Manx: tanjent (gv) m
• Norwegian: tangens (no) m
• Polish: tangens (pl) m
• Portuguese: tangente (pt) f
• Romanian: tangentă (ro) f
• Russian: тангенс (ru) (tángens) m
• Spanish: tangente (es) f
• Swedish: tangens (sv) c
• Turkish: tanjant (tr)

nearly unrelated topic

• Catalan: tangent (ca) f
• Esperanto: parentezaĵo (eo)
• Finnish: sivuraide (fi), harhapolku (fi)

• German: Nebensache (de) f
• Polish: punkt wspólny (pl) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

• Italian: tangente (it) f (1)

Adjective

tangent (not comparable)

1. (geometry) Touching a curve at a single point but not crossing it at that point.
2. Of a topic, only loosely related to a main topic.

See also

• cosine
• non sequitur
• sine
• trigonometry

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French

Adjective

tangent m (feminine tangente, masculine plural tangents, feminine plural tangentes)

1. (mathematics) tangential
2. borderline

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Latin

Verb

tangent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of tangō
   1. "they will touch, they will grasp"
   2. "they will reach, they will arrive at"
   3. "they will attain to"
   4. "they will move, they will affect"
   5. "they will come home to"

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Swedish

Wikipedia ^sv

Noun

tangent c

1. a key (button on a typewriter, computer keyboard or piano)
2. (mathematics) a tangent

Declension

Declension of tangent

	singular		plural
Common	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	tangent	tangenten	tangenter	tangenterna
genitive	tangents	tangentens	tangenters	tangenternas

Related terms

• tangens
• tangentbord