tactless
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of tactless
Explanation
To be tactless is to either be rude (without manners) or inept (without finesse). Either way, it's awkward. Since people with tact are polite and respectful, tactless people are the opposite: rude and ill-mannered. Interrupting is tactless. Wearing a baseball hat in church is tactless. Not holding the door for someone is tactless. This word has to do with other graces besides social graces too. Being clumsy or lacking in judgment can also be called tactless, and an employee who constantly botches his job and never understands why is also tactless.
Vocabulary lists containing tactless
Common Senses: Tact, Tang ("Touch")
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The Diary of a Young Girl
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A Doll's House
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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.
In his largest role, Gene Howe is known to his Amarillo readers as Old Tack, the generous, convivial, duck-hunting, dog-finding, golf-playing conductor of a column of chatter called "The Tactless Texan."
From Time Magazine Archive
His folksy daily column, "The Tactless Texan," was the most popular newspaper column in the state, and across Texas he was known as "Mr. Panhandle, Amarillo's one-man Chamber of Commerce."
From Time Magazine Archive
Tactless, humorless and almost incapable of dissimulation, Taft is, to our mind, also diligent and courageous.
From Time Magazine Archive
Tactless Admiral Hamlet only made things worse, but Mediator McGrady was making real progress when the strike came.
From Time Magazine Archive
Tactless laughter at his own wit, jests that have a sting of idle gossip, are to be avoided.
From Washington and His Comrades in Arms; a chronicle of the War of Independence by Wrong, George McKinnon
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.
