tangential
English
Etymology
2=teh₂gPlease see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /tænˈdʒɛn.tʃəl/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /tænˈdʒɛnt.ʃəl/, /tænˈdʒɛn.ʃəl/
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Adjective
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.
- That subject is tangential to our discussion, and we cannot let it distract us.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
referring to a tangent
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merely touching
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