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May 2, 2024
This week’s theme
Words from geometry

This week’s words
elliptic
triangulation
squarely
tangent
asymptote

tangent
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

tangent

PRONUNCIATION:
(TAN-juhnt)

MEANING:
noun:1. A line of thought or action that diverges from the main topic or course.
 2. A line that touches a curve or a surface at one point but doesn’t cross it.
adjective:1. Straying from the main topic.
 2. Touching a curve or a surface at one point without crossing it.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin tangere (to touch). Earliest documented use: 1594.

USAGE:
“Be cognizant of the exact question you were asked and make sure to answer it fully before going off on a tangent.”
Ryan Joseph; Job Interview Etiquette; Security Business (Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin); Nov 2023.

“If once this tangent flight of mine were over, and I were returned to my wonted leisurely motion in my old circle, I may probably endeavour to return her poetic compliment in kind.”
Robert Burns; The Letters of Robert Burns, Vol 1; Oxford University Press; 1986.

See more usage examples of tangent in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do. There is no fun in doing nothing when you have nothing to do. Wasting time is merely an occupation then, and a most exhausting one. Idleness, like kisses, to be sweet must be stolen. -Jerome K. Jerome, humorist and playwright (2 May 1859-1927)

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