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Synonyms for tangent

Grammar : Adj
Spell : tan-juhnt
Phonetic Transcription : ˈtæn dʒənt

Définition of tangent

Origin :
  • 1590s, "meeting at a point without intersecting," from Latin tangentem (nominative tangens), present participle of tangere "to touch," from PIE root *tag- "to touch, to handle" (cf. Latin tactus "touch," Greek tetagon "having seized," Old English þaccian "stroke, strike gently"). First used by Danish mathematician Thomas Fincke in "Geomietria Rotundi" (1583). Extended sense of "slightly connected with a subject" is first recorded 1825. The noun also is attested from 1590s.
  • adj touching
Example sentences :
  • His conversation when he does not fly off at a tangent is full of pith and idea.
  • Extract from : « The Stark Munro Letters » by J. Stark Munro
  • But, look out, fellow strollers, for we are off in a tangent!
  • Extract from : « Continental Monthly, Vol. III, No IV, April 1863 » by Various
  • The mere thought of the hospital sent her mind flying off at a tangent.
  • Extract from : « Quin » by Alice Hegan Rice
  • There wasn't a half mile of tangent at a single stretch in the whole of it.
  • Extract from : « The Boy Scouts Book of Campfire Stories » by Various
  • The complement of the logarithm of a sine, tangent, or secant.
  • Extract from : « The Sailor's Word-Book » by William Henry Smyth
  • Or thus: if it be perpendicular to the tangent, it is a diameter by the touch point: Schoner.
  • Extract from : « The Way To Geometry » by Peter Ramus
  • A tangent is but one onely in that point of the periphery Schoner.
  • Extract from : « The Way To Geometry » by Peter Ramus
  • For otherwise a tangent were not on the same part one onely and no more.
  • Extract from : « The Way To Geometry » by Peter Ramus
  • A line drawn from the centre of a circle to the extremity of the tangent.
  • Extract from : « The Sailor's Word-Book » by William Henry Smyth
  • What is the focus of a perpendicular on the tangent of an ellipse from any external point?
  • Extract from : « The Romance of Mathematics » by P. Hampson

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Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019