Definition of TACT

tact

Meanings

Plural: tacts

Noun

  • consideration in dealing with others and avoiding giving offense
  • 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.
  • Propriety; manners (etiquette).
  • The sense of touch; feeling.
  • The stroke in beating time.
  • 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).
  • Clipping of tactic.

Verb

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

Origin / Etymology

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.

Antonyms

tactlessness

Scrabble Score: 6

tact is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
tact is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
tact is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 7

tact is a valid Words With Friends word