Circumstantiality vs Tangential - What's the difference?
circumstantiality | tangential |
Minute detail.
*1842 ,
*:Plushkin's list was distinguished by a conciseness of exposition which had led to certain of the items being represented merely by Christian name, patronymic, and a couple of dots; and Sobakevitch's list was remarkable for its amplitude and circumstantiality , in that not a single peasant had such of his peculiar characteristics omitted as that the deceased had been "excellent at joinery," or "sober and ready to pay attention to his work."
An irrelevant detail that disturbs one's thought process.
Referring to a tangent, moving at a tangent to something.
* 2002 , Edward Teller, Memoirs: A Twentieth Century Journey in Science and Politics , page 560
*{{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
, author=(Henry Petroski)
, title=Opening Doors
, volume=100, issue=2, page=112-3
, magazine=
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
Only indirectly related.
As a noun circumstantiality
is minute detail.As an adjective tangential is
referring to a tangent, moving at a tangent to something.circumstantiality
English
Noun
(circumstantialities)tangential
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- 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.
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.}}
- The archoplasm divides and forms a very large spindle which first lies tangential to the surface of the nucleus.
- That subject is tangential to our discussion, and we cannot let it distract us.