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Adjacent vs Tangential - What's the difference?

adjacent | tangential |

As adjectives the difference between adjacent and tangential

is that adjacent is lying next to, close, or contiguous; neighboring; bordering on while tangential is referring to a tangent, moving at a tangent to something.

As a noun adjacent

is something that lies next to something else, especially the side of a right triangle that is neither the hypotenuse nor the opposite.

As a preposition adjacent

is (us) next to; adjacent to; beside.

adjacent

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Lying next to, close, or contiguous; neighboring; bordering on.
    • Because the conference room is filled, we will have our meeting in the adjacent room.
  • Just before, after, or facing.
    • The picture is on the adjacent page .

    Synonyms

    * (lying next to) abutting, adjoining, contiguous, juxtaposed, near

    Antonyms

    * (lying next to) apart, distant, nonadjacent

    Related terms

    * adjacency * adjacently

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something that lies next to something else, especially the side of a right triangle that is neither the hypotenuse nor the opposite.
  • * 1980 , Faber Birren, The textile colorist
    • Again, the key colors have twice the area of the adjacents .
  • * 2011 , Mark Zegarelli, ACT Math For Dummies (page 194)
    • Picking out the opposite, the adjacent , and the hypotenuse

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • (US) Next to; adjacent to; beside.
    • ----

    tangential

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • 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.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
    • , author=(Henry Petroski) , title=Opening Doors , volume=100, issue=2, page=112-3 , magazine= citation , passage=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.}}
  • 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.
  • Only indirectly related.
    • That subject is tangential to our discussion, and we cannot let it distract us.

    Derived terms

    * (l)

    Related terms

    * (l)