digression

/daɪˈɡrɛʃən/

Other forms: digressions

When your essay about French cooking starts describing a childhood trip to Disneyland, it's taken a digression — it's strayed from the main topic.

"But I digress" is a phrase often used by people when they realize they're no longer "on-topic." A digression is like a tangent, only digression often describes speech patterns, whereas tangent comes to us from mathematics. Another trick to remembering the meaning of digression is its relationship to the word progression. A progression is a series of ideas which proceeds in the same direction; a digression, logically enough, is an idea that goes off in another direction.

Definitions of digression

1. noun

   a message that departs from the main subject
   synonyms: aside, divagation, excursus, parenthesis, tangent

   type of:

   content, message, subject matter, substance

   what a communication that is about something is about
2. noun

   a turning aside (of your course or attention or concern)
   “a digression into irrelevant details”

   synonyms: deflection, deflexion, deviation, divagation, diversion

   types:

   red herring

   any diversion intended to distract attention from the main issue

   type of:

   turn, turning

   the act of changing or reversing the direction of the course
3. noun

   wandering from the main path of a journey
   synonyms: excursion

   type of:

   journey, journeying

   the act of traveling from one place to another