The cotangent, often abbreviated as "cot," is a trigonometric function defined as the ratio of the adjacent side to the opposite side in a right triangle. It can also be expressed as the reciprocal of the tangent function: ( \cot(x) = \frac{1}{\tan(x)} = \frac{\cos(x)}{\sin(x)} ). The cotangent function is periodic with a period of π radians. It is commonly used in various fields, including mathematics, physics, and engineering.