Definitions
ratio of the opposite to the adjacent side of a right-angled triangle
Word origin
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”).
Used in a sentence
“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?””
“The collision occurred on a two-mile stretch of tangent track.”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Line touching a curve”7 letters
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