Word of the Day

: July 21, 2016

tactile

adjective TAK-tul

What It Means

1 : perceptible by touch : tangible

2 : of, relating to, or being the sense of touch

tactile in Context

"The keyboard has good tactile feedback, and the touch pad is responsive without being too twitchy." — Bruce Brown, PC Magazine, 20 Feb. 2001

"Sensitive 'robot skin' was developed by researchers at Georgia Tech in 2014. The skin makes use of flexible touch sensors that communicate with a memory device that can store tactile interactions, mimicking human sensory memory." — Karen Turner, The San Diego Union Tribune, 29 May 2016

Did You Know?

Tangible is related to tactile, and so are intact, tact, contingent, tangent, and even entire. There's also the uncommon noun taction, meaning "the act of touching." Like tactile, all of these words can be traced back to the Latin verb tangere, meaning "to touch." Tactile was adopted by English speakers in the early 17th century (possibly by way of the French tactile) from the Latin adjective tactilis ("tangible"). Tactilis comes from tactus, a past participle of tangere.