tangent
pronunciation
How to pronounce tangent in British English:
UK [ˈtændʒənt]
How to pronounce tangent in American English:
US [ˈtændʒənt]
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- Noun:
- a straight line or plane that touches a curve or curved surface at a point but does not intersect it at that point
- ratio of the opposite to the adjacent side of a right-angled triangle
Word Origin
- tangent (adj.)
- 1590s, "meeting at a point without intersecting," from Latin tangentem (nominative tangens), present participle of tangere "to touch," from PIE root *tag- "to touch, to handle; border on; taste, partake of; strike, hit;" figuratively "affect, impress; trick, cheat; mention, speak of" (cognates: Latin tactus "touch;" Greek tassein "to arrange," tetagon "having seized;" Old English þaccian "stroke, strike gently"). First used by Danish mathematician Thomas Fincke in "Geomietria Rotundi" (1583). Extended sense of "slightly connected with a subject" is first recorded 1825. Related: Tangence; tangency.
- tangent (n.)
- 1590s as a geometric function, from tangent (adj.). From 1650s as "a tangent line." Figurative use of off on a tangent is from 1771.
Example
- 1. Construct a conic tangent to five lines .
- 2. Attaches the automatic tangent , but enhances large scale sews the efficiency .
- 3. When he viewed curved objects statically , he saw coarse tangent and secant line boundaries instead of smooth curvature .
- 4. Method for the determination of permittivity and dielektric loss tangent .
- 5. One reason I left law was that I was haunted by the feeling that I was ...... on a tangent , off-center .