today's WAD, in part: tangential (tan-JEN-shuhl) adjective ... 3. Mathematics: Of or pertaining to the nature of a tangent.

Do others share my feeling that there is room for improvement in this part of the definition provided?

Well, there is a lot to say about "tangent".
For example, it has a trigonometric meaning = sinus(x) divided by cosinus(x)... But how can I show the true meaning without a drawing?

Also, about a line tangent to a given curve, say for example a circle.. Take two points on the circle, and draw the line between themselves. This is a secant line. Then, think of the two points as approaching more and more between themselves...that line moves, and at the limit of the process it becomes the tangent line - you can say that it intersect the circle in two coincident points......And..... stop me..... this is my field...

And of course I can talk a lot about all the words of this week.
For example
osculate - Osculating curves means literally kissing curves. I am always joking during my lessons about
hiperosculating conics...

room for improvement in this part of the definition

Well, maybe, but is that the place for it? Tangent should be given its own definition. Look for it there.

one of the 'rules' of lexicography is to define every word used in a definition. obviously you don't do that *within each definition. (see faldage) another rule, given the first, is be succinct.

this is a problem encountered when quoting definitions "out of context". (this is also why I don't call my "word list" a dictionary)

... sinus(x) divided by cosinus(x)... Would the answer then be scripted as "tangentus"? My question is one mostly void of any basis in romance languages which to refer, yet the "us" suffix *seems latin in nature, and/yet is ommited 'ere in the US (eg. sine and cosine).

emanuela: hiperosculating conics -- does speed of motion increase, somewhat like f(x)= sin (1/x) as x --> 0? (which function would, speaking non-tangentially, constitute mathemapornography with a self-evident point of extreme singularity) ]

Blushing..just a mistake, made from the italian seno e coseno...I should know..

simpler than that, two hyperosculating conics have 4 coincident points in common.
No more than four, since for 5 points in a general position there is one and just one conic.

I would never have imagined to state such mathematical theorems and definitions here!

It sure would be helpful to see a diagram of hyperosculating conics... The extraordinary mental image I have is of two connected snow cones in whirling about with crushed ice being thrown hither and thither at great speed. Such are the impressions of the uninitiated...

WhirlingWind