How to Use orthogonal in a Sentence

orthogonal

adjective
  • The shifting tectonics play off the orthogonal grid of courts.
    — Michael Kimmelman, New York Times, 28 Apr. 2017
  • At the margin, this discussion is a bit orthogonal.
    — Neil Senturia, San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 Nov. 2025
  • This use of orthogonal coding to separate and protect information in the brain has been seen before.
    — Quanta Magazine, 15 Apr. 2021
  • Don’t go randomly asking for some details in an area that is orthogonal to someone’s primary effort.
    — Neil Senturia, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Oct. 2025
  • Next, ceramic spheres and compressed aluminum powder rods are stacked in an orthogonal, grillage pattern and enclosed in a steel box using spot welds.
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 20 July 2020
  • In addition to photos, the system will pull its imagery from sources such as commercial satellite and orthogonal imagery.
    — Sean Gallagher, Ars Technica, 16 Mar. 2018
  • But of all the spaghetti that got thrown at the wall, this is the one that hits for reasons that are totally orthogonal to politics and sort of Washington.
    — Ben Smith, semafor.com, 31 Jan. 2026
  • But anything that conducts an electric field also conducts a magnetic field in the orthogonal direction.
    — James Conca, Forbes, 27 Sep. 2021
  • To the French activist who spoke of innocence, this bow, an arrow fitted to it, would represent pure orthogonal virtue, a means of preserving life by killing.
    — Jordan Castro, Harper's Magazine, 5 Jan. 2024
  • Shoup’s own project, called SuperPaint, was orthogonal to that effort, and not universally blessed.
    — Steven Levy, Wired, 31 Aug. 2021
  • This placed an undue burden on trustees and money managers to chase social goals which are orthogonal to the single focus of providing financial value to retirees.
    — Jerry Bowyer, National Review, 15 Oct. 2020
  • It is moved in a straight line (orthogonal or diagonal) to the first vacant intersection beyond the men, and the men so jumped are immediately removed.
    — Quanta Magazine, 28 Aug. 2015
  • This direction favors subsequent hydraulic fractures being orthogonal to the well.
    — Ian Palmer, Forbes, 19 May 2022
  • This is a complex procedural question that's orthogonal to questions about the copyright status of APIs.
    — Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica, 8 Oct. 2020
  • More orthogonal in spirit, the sister’s side features a central staircase and internal windows so that the primary suite overlooks the kitchen and dining area, borrowing light from the rear façade.
    — Sam Cochran, Architectural Digest, 18 Mar. 2025
  • Raising a child with disabilities can feel like wandering through an orthogonal arrangement of hallways, banging on walls to check for any hidden passageways to a more inclusive realm.
    — Julie Kim, The Atlantic, 9 July 2025
  • Our approach is orthogonal to existing work that focuses on improving hardware and software efficiency.
    — Jonathan Vanian, Fortune, 22 Feb. 2022
  • All of this is, of course, trackable on the handheld's lower screen, the persistence of its orthogonal map eliminating screen-tabbing interruptions and clumsy semi-transparent overlays.
    — Matt Peckham, Time, 27 June 2017
  • The two orthogonal representations can then draw from overlapping neural activity without intruding on each other.
    — Quanta Magazine, 15 Apr. 2021
  • Each of those diverse ideas is loaded with preconceived notions, biases, tangential or orthogonal associations.
    — Jerry Weissman, Forbes, 8 Sep. 2021
  • Lines accreted in an essentially radial configuration, with large arcs orbiting an absent central axis, and orthogonal spokes sprouting from the core.
    — Jason Farago, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2021
  • The methods developed so far really think about genetics and environment as separate and orthogonal, as independent factors.
    — Quanta Magazine, 23 Apr. 2019
  • Goeritz, a towering figure in Mexican modern art and architecture, challenged the young architect’s initial design of rigid orthogonal spaces.
    — Natalie Stoclet, Forbes, 5 Dec. 2024
  • North African Jewish and non-Jewish populations form distinctive, orthogonal clusters.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 13 Aug. 2012
  • Another example of a slightly more complicated mathematical structure is what’s called orthogonal Latin squares.
    — Leila Sloman, Quanta Magazine, 12 Jan. 2024
  • The coal-refining tax credits were approved by Congress and, seeing as the energy industry is completely orthogonal to Mylan's business, there's no reason the company can't snatch up stakes in this business arena.
    — Sy Mukherjee, Fortune, 21 June 2017
  • The genes in the orthogonal system are copied with an extraordinarily error-prone DNA replication enzyme, which spurs rapid evolution by generating many random mutations.
    — Diana Gitig, Ars Technica, 5 Feb. 2024
  • The Oblique breaks with the orthogonal certainties of urbanism, countering and questioning the dynamics of comfort that Parent perceived as inextricably tied to consumer society.
    — Elinore Weil, Artforum, 4 Mar. 2026
  • The first-generation Jetta (1980), designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro of Italdesign, was an orthogonal paragon of cheap-car virtue.
    — Dan Neil, WSJ, 10 Aug. 2018
  • The Isuzu platform will have orthogonal actuation systems with redundancies in steering, braking, engine control, wiring harnesses, compute, electrical power — all mission critical stuff.
    — Richard Bishop, Forbes, 6 Apr. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'orthogonal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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