Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The condition of being tangent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being tangent; a contact or touching. Also called taction.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or state of being tangent; a contact or touching.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state of being tangent; an instance of (something) being tangent.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (electronics) a junction where things (as two electrical conductors) touch or are in physical contact
  • noun the state of being tangent; having contact at a single point or along a line without crossing

Etymologies

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Examples

  • A tangency is a point of contact between one shape and another so that they just touch without overlapping.

    Archive 2009-05-01 James Gurney 2009

  • Musset, but with "tangency" on both, will be discussed in the text.

    A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century George Saintsbury 1889

  • Charlie mentions a circle-circle tangency joke not working, right before a James Bond reference (007 — circle, circle, tangent).

    Wolfram Blog : Pi Day 2008

  • Scientists had calculated that the bomber would achieve optimum distance from the blast with 155 degrees of tangency.

    Whirlwind Barrett Tillman 2010

  • Scientists had calculated that the bomber would achieve optimum distance from the blast with 155 degrees of tangency.

    Whirlwind Barrett Tillman 2010

  • Charlie mentions a circle-circle tangency joke not working, right before a James Bond reference (007 — circle, circle, tangent).

    Wolfram Blog : 2008 : March 2008

  • A tangency can also happen when a shape touches the frame of the composition.

    Archive 2009-05-01 James Gurney 2009

  • The preferred alternative is the one that yields the greatest utility, which occurs (for continuous decision variables as shown here) at the point of tangency D of the best equi-preference curve, with the trade off curve.

    Multi-criteria analysis in environmental decision-making 2007

  • She sipped her coffee languorously as she spoke, relaxing into eccentric tangency now that the main order of business had been concluded.

    The Deed Keith Blanchard 2003

  • She sipped her coffee languorously as she spoke, relaxing into eccentric tangency now that the main order of business had been concluded.

    The Deed Keith Blanchard 2003

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