tangential

From tangent + -ial.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tænˈd͡ʒɛn.t͡ʃəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /tænˈd͡ʒɛn.t͡ʃəl/

• Audio (US):

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tangential (comparative more tangential, superlative most tangential)

1. Referring to a tangent, moving at a tangent to something.
   • 2002, Edward Teller, Memoirs: A Twentieth Century Journey in Science and Politics, page 560:

     The meteor came in on a tangential orbit and exploded about 8 or 10 miles above the earth's surface, just south of the Arctic Circle.

   • 2012 March, Henry Petroski, “Opening Doors”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 2, pages 112–3:

     A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place. Applying a force tangential to the knob is essentially equivalent to applying one perpendicular to a radial line defining the lever.

2. Merely touching, positioned as a tangent.
   • 1898, Gary Nathan Calkins, Mitosis in Noctiluca miliaris and its bearing on the nuclear relations of the Protozoa and Metazoa, Ph.D. Thesis, page 3

     The archoplasm divides and forms a very large spindle which first lies tangential to the surface of the nucleus.

3. Only indirectly related.

   Synonym: tangent

   That subject is tangential to our discussion, and we cannot let it distract us.

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• tangent
• tangental

• antitangle