- (geometry) a straight line that touches the outside of a curve but does not cross it
- The cart track branches off at a tangent.
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- (abbreviation tan)(mathematics) the ratio of the length of the side opposite an angle in a right-angled triangle to the length of the side next to it compare cosine, sineTopics Maths and measurementc2
Word Originlate 16th cent. (in sense (2) and as an adjective): from Latin tangent- ‘touching’, from the verb tangere.
Idioms
See tangent in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee tangent in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishfly/go off at a tangent (British English)
(North American English go off on a tangent)
- (informal) to suddenly start saying or doing something that does not seem to be connected to what has gone before
- He never sticks to the point but keeps going off at a tangent.
- Laura’s mind went off at a tangent.
Check pronunciation:
tangent