tact
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -ækt
Noun
tact (countable and uncountable, plural tacts)
- The sense of touch; feeling. [from 1650s]
- Robert Southey
- Did you suppose that I could not make myself sensible to tact as well as sight?
- J. Le Conte
- Now, sight is a very refined tact.
- Robert Southey
- (music) The stroke in beating time.
- 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
- Thomas Babington Macaulay
- 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.
- Thomas Babington Macaulay
- A tact which surpassed the tact of her sex as much as the tact of her sex surpassed the tact of ours.
- 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.
- (slang) Clipping of tactic.
- 2006 "Block Party", 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."
- Wanda "Hey, can you show us?"
- 2006 "Block Party", Corner Gas
- (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.
- 2013, Jacob L. Gewirtz, William M. Kurtines, Jacob L. Lamb, Intersections With Attachment
Translations
sensitive mental touch
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Verb
tact (third-person singular simple present tacts, present participle tacting, simple past and past participle tacted)
- (psychology) To use a tact (a kind of verbal operant; see noun sense).
Further reading
References
- “tact” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /takt/
Audio (file)
Related terms
Further reading
- “tact” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
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