tactile
Americanadjective
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of, pertaining to, endowed with, or affecting the sense of touch.
-
perceptible to the touch; tangible.
adjective
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of, relating to, affecting, or having a sense of touch
a tactile organ
tactile stimuli
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rare capable of being touched; tangible
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of tactile
1605–15; < Latin tāctilis tangible, equivalent to tāct ( us ) (past participle of tangere to touch) + -ilis -ile
Explanation
Tactile has to do with the sense of touch. There's a huge tactile difference between smooth glass and rough sandpaper. Anything to do with touch can be described as tactile. Ever notice how a dog would rather sleep on a soft blanket than a rubbery leather couch? That's because dogs have tactile preferences: the softer the better. Different textures of food are tactile — they feel different in your mouth, aside from how they taste. You deal with the world of tactile things every day — you use your tactile sense whenever you touch anything.
Vocabulary lists containing tactile
Fahrenheit 451
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Common Senses: Tact, Tang ("Touch")
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100 Great Words from "Fahrenheit 451" -- Part I Vocabulary
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Tactile inputs like the kind provided by the new pads are a relatively unexplored facet of robotic sensing and control.
From Science Daily • Apr. 17, 2024
Tactile diagrams can, for instance, be created using thin film on a rubber mat.
From BBC • Jan. 23, 2022
Court Myers, a technical consultant for the American Indian Cultural Museum in Oklahoma City, ran his fingers across a set of “brush strokes” in Tactile Studio’s Van Gogh.
From Washington Times • Jun. 4, 2019
Court Myers, a technical consultant for the American Indian Cultural Museum in Oklahoma City, ran his fingers across a set of “brush strokes” in Tactile Studio’s Van Gogh.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 3, 2019
Tactile, tangible, tantamount, temerity, tenable, tenacious, tentative, tenuous, termagant, terrestrial, testimentary, thaumaturgic, therapeutic, titular, torso, tortuous, tractable, traduce, transcendent, transfiguration, transient, transitory, translucent, transverse, travesty, tribulation, tributary, truculent, truncate, turbid, turpitude, tyro.
From The Century Vocabulary Builder by Bachelor, Joseph M. (Joseph Morris)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
