tact

CEFRB2

/tækt/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    Skill in avoiding offense when dealing with people.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Propriety; manners (etiquette).

Examples

  • Tact is good taste applied to conduct.

  • Tact is the ability to think with another person's brain.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. The sense of touch; feeling.

  2. 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.

  3. The stroke in beating time.

More examples

In context

  • You don't always have to say what's on your mind; sometimes tact trumps candor.

  • 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.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

She showed great blank when she gently told him the bad news.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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.