Definition of "tangential" []

• Of, relating to, or moving along or in the direction of a tangent. (adjective)
• Merely touching or slightly connected. (adjective)
• Only superficially relevant; divergent: a tangential remark. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "FRUEHLING -- Did you ever consider the problem of what I call tangential advertising?"
• "They are here to bog us all down in tangential discussions that are (mostly) irrelevant to the topic at hand."
• "Unfortunately, Reiss gets bogged down in tangential details while trying to place Nussimbaum in early 20th-century context, but this is still an important work that sheds light on the pre-Zionist phenomenon of Jewish Orientalism that led many Jews to embrace Muslim culture."