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.

Adjective

(en adjective)

Pertaining to or dependent on circumstances, especially as opposed to essentials; incidental, not essential.

* Sharp

We must therefore distinguish between the essentials in religious worship and what is merely circumstantial .

Abounding with circumstances; detailing or exhibiting all the circumstances; minute; particular.

* 1806 , )

For although my information appears too direct and circumstantial to be fictitious, yet the magnitude of the enterprise, the desperation of the plan, and the stupendous consequences with which it seems pregnant, stagger my belief

* 2007 , John Burrow, A History of Histories , Penguin 2009, p. 326:

Second-hand but clearly from the best possible source - the King himself - [the story] is highly circumstantial , taking twenty-two pages of text.

Full of circumstance or pomp; ceremonial.