tangential
English
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Pronunciation
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[edit]tangential (comparative more tangential, superlative most tangential)
- Referring to a tangent, moving at a tangent to something.
- 2002, Edward Teller, Memoirs: A Twentieth Century Journey in Science and Politics, page 560:
- The meteor came in on a tangential orbit and exploded about 8 or 10 miles above the earth's surface, just south of the Arctic Circle.
- 2012 March, Henry Petroski, “Opening Doors”, in American Scientist[1], volume 100, number 2, pages 112–3:
- A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place. Applying a force tangential to the knob is essentially equivalent to applying one perpendicular to a radial line defining the lever.
- Merely touching, positioned as a tangent.
- 1898, Gary Nathan Calkins, Mitosis in Noctiluca miliaris and its bearing on the nuclear relations of the Protozoa and Metazoa, Ph.D. Thesis, page 3
- The archoplasm divides and forms a very large spindle which first lies tangential to the surface of the nucleus.
- 1898, Gary Nathan Calkins, Mitosis in Noctiluca miliaris and its bearing on the nuclear relations of the Protozoa and Metazoa, Ph.D. Thesis, page 3
- Only indirectly related.
- Synonyms: tangent, incidental
- That subject is tangential to our discussion, and we cannot let it distract us.
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]referring to a tangent
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merely touching
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Anagrams
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- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂el- (grow)
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *teh₂g- (touch)
- English terms suffixed with -ial
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