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tact

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tact¹

  • /tækt/

Sounds like tacked · Rhymes with -ækt

Where it comes from

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.

noun

  1. uncountable 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 and avoid statements that will give offence or pain even if true. By the use of tact, she was able to calm her jealous husband.

    Similar: sensitivity, consideration, diplomacy, tactfulness, discretion

  2. uncountable Propriety; manners (etiquette).

tact²

  • /tækt/

Sounds like tacked · Rhymes with -ækt

Where it comes from

Directly borrowed from Latin tāctus.

noun tacts

  1. countable, uncountable The sense of touch; feeling. Did you suppose that I could not make myself sensible to tact as well as sight?
  2. countable, uncountable The stroke in beating time.
  3. countable, uncountable 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). Skinner (1957) saw such tacts as responses that are reinforced socially.

verb tacts · tacting · tacted

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

tact³

  • /tækt/

Sounds like tacked · Rhymes with -ækt

noun tacts

  1. abbreviation, clipping, slang Clipping of tactic 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."

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: tactfulness, feel, sensitivity, finesse, delicacy, touch, discretion, thoughtfulness, skill, judgement, pace, diplomacy, button, finger, prudence, circumspection

Translations

Every language

noun sensitive mental touch

Españoltacto, tiento, mano izquierda
한국어재치 jaechi
日本語如才なさ josainasa, 愛想 aiso, 礼儀 reigi, タクト
中文機智 /机智 jīzhì, 輕重感 /轻重感 qīngzhònggǎn, 分寸感 fēncùngǎn, 禮貌 /礼貌 lǐmào
Portuguêstato
Françaistact
DeutschTakt, Taktgefühl
Italianotatto
Русскийтакт takt, такти́чность taktíčnostʹ
العربيةحِسّ ḥiss, لَبَاقَة labāqa, لَمْس lams

noun sense of touch

Françaistact

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Cite this
MLA

"tact." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/tact. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

tact. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/tact

Chicago

"tact." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/tact.

BibTeX
@misc{tact_2026,
  title = {tact},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/tact},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}