as in irrelevant
having little to do with the matter at hand
Your point is tangential to the main objective of this meeting so please save it for later.
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of tangential
There are implications that the two central fathers of the piece have clashed before, though the more jarring examples of tangential threads concern a performing troupe with whom Tornado has a pre-existing relationship.
—
Josh Slater-Williams, IndieWire, 26 Feb. 2025
Is that a fair, if perhaps tangential, limning of this sinister quality that your poems sometimes have?
—Corey Seymour, Vogue, 6 Feb. 2025
The main selling point of our domains may be the metaphor or emotional invocations, so the connection to keywords is tangential or opaque.
—Darpan Munjal, Forbes, 22 Dec. 2024
That inadvertently led to one of the darkest tangential consequences of the building of the Sydney Opera House.
—Michael Y. Park, Architectural Digest, 9 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for tangential
Josh Slater-Williams, IndieWire, 26 Feb. 2025
Is that a fair, if perhaps tangential, limning of this sinister quality that your poems sometimes have?
—Corey Seymour, Vogue, 6 Feb. 2025
The main selling point of our domains may be the metaphor or emotional invocations, so the connection to keywords is tangential or opaque.
—Darpan Munjal, Forbes, 22 Dec. 2024
That inadvertently led to one of the darkest tangential consequences of the building of the Sydney Opera House.
—Michael Y. Park, Architectural Digest, 9 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for tangential
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tangential
Adjective
-
The weather’s getting warmer in Montreal, playoff weather, a time of year this group is used to looking for external, irrelevant sources of motivation to play out the string.—
Arpon Basu,
The Athletic,
16 Mar. 2025
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Too long to weed through red herrings and convolutions in the mystery that eventually border on irrelevant.—
Daniel Fienberg,
The Hollywood Reporter,
12 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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The slope, or steepness, of the tangent line measures how quickly the function is changing at that point.—
Solomon Adams,
WIRED,
23 Feb. 2025
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By 1643, René Descartes had discovered a simple relationship between the curvatures of any four circles that are tangent to each other.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
10 Aug. 2023
Adjective
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These are used in the Meta Quest 3, and provide far better sharpness in the wearer’s peripheral vision than is possible with the fresnel lenses of headsets like the Quest 2 and PSVR 2.—
Andrew Williams,
Forbes,
21 Mar. 2025
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Reynolds' lawyers now say his involvement in the scandal was merely peripheral.—
Anna Kaufman,
USA TODAY,
19 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Tangential.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tangential. Accessed 1 Apr. 2025.
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