tact

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   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.

2. 2
   noun

   The sense of touch; feeling.

   Did you suppose that I could not make myself sensible to tact as well as sight?

3. 3
   noun

   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.

4. 4
   noun

   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."

5. 5
   noun

   consideration in dealing with others and avoiding giving offense

6. 6
   noun

   Propriety; manners (etiquette).

7. 7
   noun

   The stroke in beating time.

8. 8
   verb

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

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.