Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

digressive

American  
[dih-gres-iv, dahy-] / dɪˈgrɛs ɪv, daɪ- /

adjective

  1. tending to digress; departing from the main subject.


digressive British  
/ daɪˈɡrɛsɪv /

adjective

  1. characterized by digression or tending to digress

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of digressive

From the Latin word dīgressīvus, dating back to 1605–15. See digress, -ive


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Having just nabbed the Pulitzer Prize, Bess Wohl’s where-did-the-feminist-movement-go-wrong? play “Liberation” seems the likely winner, and a worthy one, despite its shaggy and digressive structure.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026

The photography is occasionally dazzling—a standout sequence is a series of time-lapse images providing views of the movements of the stars over Africa—but Mr. Herzog is primarily a storyteller, albeit a digressive one.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026

The dialogue is naturally digressive, sliding in just as much exposition as needed with a magician’s sleight of hand.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2025

However, it appears that the 79-year-old president mixed up the two men when telling one of his digressive stories, this time about Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber.

From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2025

The wild diffusion of the sentiments, and the digressive sallies of imagination, would have been compressed and restrained by confinement to rhyme.

From The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes Volume the Eighth: The Lives of the Poets, Volume II by Samuel Johnson

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Dictionary.com's Learning Companion

Go beyond just looking up words.
Remember them forever with VocabTrainer.

Start training