tactful
Americanadjective
Related Words
See diplomatic.
Other Word Forms
- tactfully adverb
- tactfulness noun
- untactful adjective
- untactfully adverb
Etymology
Origin of tactful
Explanation
If you are tactful, you have a knack for saying the right thing at the right time. A tactful person is appropriate and sensitive, never rude or careless. Tactful means "full of tact." What's tact? It's the gift for saying the right thing because you understand what the situation calls for. So, if you are tactful, you wouldn't tell your friend that the food at her party was awful — you'd talk about the interesting conversation you had and the great music. But even when tactful people have to give criticism, they do it in such a way that the other person doesn't get offended.
Vocabulary lists containing tactful
100 Top "SAT" Words
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Power Suffix: -ful
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The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 5
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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.
He has found a way to be both tactful and transgressive.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 16, 2026
If I’m misreading the situation and you do really like him and want to address this, there are tactful ways to do so.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 1, 2025
It plans to do this through networking, or linking physical quantum systems together, rather than piling more qubits onto a chip—a tactful approach, seeing as a higher number of qubits typically correlates to more errors.
From Barron's • Oct. 21, 2025
Meet “Ozempic face,” the extremely tactful name for a set of cosmetic side effects that includes sagging skin, sunken eyes, thin lips, deeper wrinkles, and a more gaunt appearance.
From Slate • Aug. 21, 2025
“An excellent haiku, Gloria,” said tactful Miss K, “but let’s hope such a thing never happens to Ralph.”
From "Ralph S. Mouse" by Beverly Cleary
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.
