tactile
[tak-til, -tahyl]
- of, pertaining to, endowed with, or affecting the sense of touch.
- perceptible to the touch; tangible.
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Origin of tactile
1605–15; < Latin tāctilis tangible, equivalent to tāct(us) (past participle of tangere to touch) + -ilis -ile
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for tactile
Contemporary Examples
Could Peso-trash be a serious threat to the lively and tactile scene down the hill?
These tactile projects make them “feel they can start and finish something,” she said.
Physical books, which can only be seen and handled in physical bookshops, are lovely, tactile things.
Tactile and open, she makes you feel both important and protective.
Taurus is tactile, sensual, lush—adjectives ascribed to this auteur.
Historical Examples
Tactile: used for touching; an organ that has the sense of touch.
Explanation of Terms Used in EntomologyJohn. B. Smith
There is, I am told, tactile memory as well as visual and aural memory.
Story of My LifeHelen Keller
It was the tactile, not the visual sensations that upset him.
The Lani PeopleJ. F. Bone
Page 54: each of the tactile organ probably should be organs.
Sometimes they are transformed into feelers or tactile organs.
A Guide to the Study of Fishes, Volume 1 (of 2)David Starr Jordan
tactile
- of, relating to, affecting, or having a sense of toucha tactile organ; tactile stimuli
- rare capable of being touched; tangible
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Word Origin
C17: from Latin tactilis, from tangere to touch
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for tactile
adj.
1610s, "perceptible to touch," from French tactile, from Latin tactilis "tangible, that may be touched," from tactus, past participle of tangere "to touch" (see tangent). Meaning "of or pertaining to touch" is attested from 1650s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
tactile
(tăk′təl, -tīl′)- Perceptible to the sense of touch; tangible.
- Used for feeling.
- Of, relating to, or proceeding from the sense of touch; tactual.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
tactile
[tăk′təl, tăk′tīl′]
- Used for or sensitive to touch.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.