tangency

[ tan-juhn-see ]

noun

1. the state of being tangent.

Word History and Origins

Origin of tangency¹

First recorded in 1810–20; tang(ent) + -ency

Example Sentences

The tangencies barely graze, or Oppenheimer chooses to share little of them.

From Washington Post

“All I could see were these unresolved tangency breaks.”

From The New Yorker

Let t be the point of tangency; draw s u and t u, cutting the cycloidal path a r in x and y.

From Project Gutenberg

A circle is a happy thing to be— Think how the joyful perpendicular Erected at the kiss of tangency Must meet my central point, my avatar!

From Project Gutenberg

It is not certain, for instance, whether Euclid meant that the circles could not cut at some other point than that of tangency.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• elbow
• seam