Tangential vs Transverse - What's the difference?
tangential | transverse |
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
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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.
Situated or lying across; side to side, relative to some defined "forward" direction.
(geometry, of an intersection) Not tangent: so that a nondegenerate angle is formed between the two things intersecting.
Anything that is transverse or athwart.
(geometry) The longer, or transverse, axis of an ellipse.
To overturn; to change.
* Rev. Charles Leslie
(obsolete) To change from prose into verse, or from verse into prose.
As adjectives the difference between tangential and transverse
is that tangential is referring to a tangent, moving at a tangent to something while transverse is situated or lying across; side to side, relative to some defined "forward" direction.As a noun transverse is
anything that is transverse or athwart.As a verb transverse is
to overturn; to change.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.
Derived terms
* (l)transverse
English
Adjective
(en adjective)Antonyms
* (lying across) longitudinalNoun
(en noun)Verb
(transvers)- And so long shall her censures, when justly passed, have their effect: how then can they be altered or transversed , suspended or superseded, by a temporal government, that must vanish and come to nothing?
- (Duke of Buckingham)