Subscriber login


Forgot your password?

Library card login

Other

tangent

Pronunciation: /ˈtan(d)ʒ(ə)nt/

Translate tangent | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of tangent

noun

  • 1a straight line or plane that touches a curve or curved surface at a point, but if extended does not cross it at that point.
  • 2a completely different line of thought or action:Loretta’s mind went off at a tangent
  • 3 Mathematics the trigonometric function that is equal to the ratio of the sides (other than the hypotenuse) opposite and adjacent to an angle in a right-angled triangle.

adjective

  • (of a line or plane) touching, but not intersecting, a curve or curved surface: this curve is tangent to the average cost curve

Derivatives

tangency

noun

Origin:

late 16th century (in tangent (sense 3 of the noun) and as an adjective): from Latin tangent- 'touching', from the verb tangere

tangent in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of tangent in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

  |  Cite

More words in this category

Word of the day

leporine

/ ˈlɛpərʌɪn /
adjective
of or resembling a hare or hares …