Tact Meaning
/tækt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounSensitive 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.
nounPropriety; manners (etiquette).
Sentence Examples
You don't always have to say what's on your mind; sometimes tact trumps candor.
Tact is good taste applied to conduct.
Tact is the ability to think with another person's brain.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She showed great ____ when she gently told him the bad news.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
It took a lot of ____ and diplomacy to handle the delicate situation without offending any of the people involved today.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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 XI, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (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."
— 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XI, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
"Did you suppose that I could not make myself sensible to tact as well as sight?"
— 1829, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:
"Now, sight is a very refined tact."
— 1881, Joseph LeConte, Sight: An Exposition on the Principles of Monocular and Binocular Vision:
"Skinner (1957) saw such tacts as responses that are reinforced socially."
— 2013, Jacob L. Gewirtz, William M. Kurtines, Jacob L. Lamb, Intersections With Attachment:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She showed great ____ when she gently told him the bad news.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
It took a lot of ____ and diplomacy to handle the delicate situation without offending any of the people involved today.