tact

• IPA^(key): /tækt/

• Audio (AU)

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• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -ækt

Borrowed from French tact, following a semantic shift from earlier tact (“sense of touch; feeling”), borrowed from Latin tāctus (“touched”). The borrowing was likely influenced by earlier English tact (“sense of touch; feeling”), which was a parallel borrowing directly from the Latin.[1]

tact (uncountable)

1. Sensitive mental touch; special skill or faculty; keen perception or discernment; ready power of appreciating and doing what is required by circumstances; the ability to say the right thing. [from early 19th c.]

   Synonyms: sensitivity, consideration, diplomacy, tactfulness

   By the use of tact, she was able to calm her jealous husband.

   I used tact when I told my fat uncle that his extra weight made him look better.

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 11, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     He had formed plans not inferior in grandeur and boldness to those of Richelieu, and had carried them into effect with a tact and wariness worthy of Mazarin.

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 11, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     A tact which surpassed the tact of her sex as much as the tact of her sex surpassed the tact of ours.

2. Propriety; manners (etiquette).

Directly borrowed from Latin tāctus.

tact (countable and uncountable, plural tacts)

1. The sense of touch; feeling. [from 1650s]
   • 1829, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:

     Did you suppose that I could not make myself sensible to tact as well as sight?

   • 1881, Joseph LeConte, Sight: An Exposition on the Principles of Monocular and Binocular Vision:

     Now, sight is a very refined tact.

2. (music) The stroke in beating time.
3. (psychology) A verbal operant which is controlled by a nonverbal stimulus (such as an object, event, or property of an object) and is maintained by nonspecific social reinforcement (praise).
   • 2013, Jacob L. Gewirtz, William M. Kurtines, Jacob L. Lamb, Intersections With Attachment:

     Skinner (1957) saw such tacts as responses that are reinforced socially.

tact (third-person singular simple present tacts, present participle tacting, simple past and past participle tacted)

1. (psychology) To use a tact (a kind of verbal operant).

tact (plural tacts)

1. (slang) Clipping of tactic.
   • 2006, “Block Party”, in Corner Gas:

     Wanda "Hey, can you show us?"
     Karen "No"
     Brent "We promise not to make fun of you."
     Karen "No"
     Lacey "Okay, we promise TO make fun of you."
     Karen "I'm getting a drink"
     Lacey "I was trying a different tact."
     Wanda "Bad tack."

• tact on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “tact”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “tact”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• tact time

• Catt

Borrowed from French tact.

• IPA^(key): /tɑkt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: tact
• Rhymes: -ɑkt

tact m (uncountable)

1. tact, discernment

Borrowed from Latin tactus.

• IPA^(key): /takt/

• Audio

  (file)

tact m (plural tacts)

1. tact

• tactile

• → Dutch: tact
• → English: tact (“sensitive mental touch”)
• → Greek: τακτ (takt)
• → Polish: takt
• → Turkish: takt

• “tact”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from German Takt or French tact.

tact n (plural tacturi)

1. tact