Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun tangent

2 senses of tangent

Sense 1
tangent -- (a straight line or plane that touches a curve or curved surface at a point but does not intersect it at that point)
       => straight line -- (a line traced by a point traveling in a constant direction; a line of zero curvature; "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line")

Sense 2
tangent, tan -- (ratio of the opposite to the adjacent side of a right-angled triangle)
       => trigonometric function, circular function -- (function of an angle expressed as a ratio of the length of the sides of right-angled triangle containing the angle)