tangent
Part of speech: noun
adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: art
arts
entertainment
geometry
lifestyle
mathematics
music
rail-transport
railways
sciences
transport
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g-
Proto-Italic *tangō
Latin tangō
Latin tangēns
Latin tangentembor.
English tangent
Borrowed from Latin tangentem, the accusative of tangēns (“touching”) (in the phrase līnea tangēns (“a touching line”)), the present participle of the verb tangō (“touch”, verb), from Proto-Italic *tangō, from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- (“to touch”).
Cognate with Old English þaccian (“to touch lightly, pat, stroke”). More at thack, thwack.
Inflected forms:
form: tangents
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: A straight line touching a curve at a single point without crossing it there.
pos: noun
examples: One feature of the body, which is constructed of pressed-steel members, is the contour of the sides. They are in the form of a continuous radius from the bottom side to the cant rail, and to enable flat glass windows to be fitted the side panels are pressed around the window opening, forming a tangent to the curved bodyside.
gloss: A function of an angle that gives the ratio of the sine to the cosine, in either the real or complex numbers. Symbols: tan, tg.
pos: noun
gloss: A topic nearly unrelated to the main topic, but having a point in common with it.
pos: noun
examples: I believe we went off onto a tangent when we started talking about monkeys on unicycles at his retirement party.
“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?”
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.
gloss: A visual interaction between two or more lines or edges that creates a perceived relationship between them, often in a way that the artist did not intend.
pos: noun
gloss: A small metal blade in a clavichord that strikes the strings to produce sound.
pos: noun
gloss: Touching a curve at a single point but not crossing it at that point.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
gloss: Of a topic, only loosely related to a main topic.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
gloss: Straight; not horizontally curved.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: The collision occurred on a two-mile stretch of tangent track.
Related words: tangential
cosine
non sequitur
sine
trigonometry
Derived words: antitangent
arctangent
bitangent
cotangent
fly off at a tangent
go off at a tangent
go off on a tangent
hyperbolic tangent
inflectional tangent
inverse tangent
semitangent
subtangent
tangental
tangent bundle
tangentoid
tangent plane
tangent space
tritangent
tangently
Translations:
lang: Afrikaans
word: tangens
lang: Afrikaans
word: tangense
lang: Afrikaans
word: raaklyn
lang: Afrikaans
word: raaklyne
lang: Arabic
word: ظِلّ الزَّاوِيَة
roman: ẓill az-zāwiya
lang: Armenian
word: տանգենս
roman: tangens
lang: Asturian
word: tanxente
lang: Azerbaijani
word: tangens
lang: Belarusian
word: та́нгенс
roman: tánhjens
lang: Bulgarian
word: та́нгенс
roman: tángens
lang: Burmese
word: တန်းဂျင့်
roman: tan:gyang.
lang: Catalan
word: tangent
lang: Cebuano
word: liras
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 正切
roman: zhèngqiē
lang: Czech
word: tangens
lang: Danish
word: tangens
lang: Dutch
word: tangens
lang: Esperanto
word: tangento
lang: Finnish
word: tangentti
lang: French
word: tangente
lang: Galician
word: tanxente
lang: German
word: Tangens
lang: Greek
word: εφαπτομένη
roman: efaptoméni
lang: Hebrew
word: טנגנס
roman: tangens
lang: Hungarian
word: tangens
lang: Icelandic
word: tangens
lang: Italian
word: tangente
lang: Japanese
word: タンジェント
roman: tanjento
lang: Japanese
word: 正接
roman: seisetsu
lang: Khmer
word: តង់សង់
roman: tɑngsɑng
lang: Korean
word: 탄젠트
roman: tanjenteu
lang: Macedonian
word: тангенс
roman: tangens
lang: Manx
word: tanjent
lang: Māori
word: pātapa
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: tangens
lang: Norwegian Nynorsk
word: tangens
lang: Persian
word: تانژانت
roman: tānžānt
lang: Persian
word: ظل
roman: zel
lang: Polish
word: tangens
lang: Portuguese
word: tangente
lang: Romanian
word: tangentă
lang: Russian
word: та́нгенс
roman: tángens
lang: Spanish
word: tangente
lang: Swedish
word: tangens
lang: Tagalog
word: tanway
lang: Thai
word: แทนเจนต์
lang: Turkish
word: tanjant
lang: Ukrainian
word: та́нгенс
roman: tánhens
lang: Vietnamese
word: tang