contactless

adjective

con·​tact·​less ˈkän-ˌtakt-ləs 

: not involving contact: such as

a

: not requiring touching or interaction between people

contactless meal delivery

… many retailers and restaurants have rolled out home delivery along with contactless options, leaving food orders and grocery deliveries on door steps.

—Dawson White

b

: relating to or being a technological system (as for making payments) where information is transmitted over short distances (as by near field communication) without physical contact

… hold your phone in front of the contactless payment scanner to authorize the purchase.

—Robert Patrick

Contactless payment cards are not in wide circulation. Instead, consumers are increasingly making electronic payments with their cellular phones …

—Chad Bray and Reuben Kyama

Examples of contactless in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In addition, tap and pay and host card emulation (HCE) enhance secure, contactless payments. —Bindesh Pandey, Forbes.com, 25 Apr. 2025

But the use of those kinds of digital payment technologies has accelerated over the past decade, driven in part by the desire for contactless payment options during the COVID-19 pandemic. —Nerdwallet, Twin Cities, 29 Jan. 2025

The contactless sleep-tracking solution WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)? —Kurt Knutsson, Cyberguy Report, Fox News, 12 Jan. 2025

Free buses from the airport to its on-site hotels came to an end along with contactless room keys which came in the form of wristbands. —Caroline Reid, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1861, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for contactless

• abs
• acquiesce
• ancestress
• authoress
• coalesce
• decompress
• dispossess
• faithfulness
• letterpress
• mayoress
• murderess
• nonetheless