- present participle of touch.
adjective
preposition
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of touching
Explanation
Something that is touching affects you emotionally—it makes you feel sad or tender. A touching video about baby hedgehogs might even make your stoic older sister cry. The adjective touching comes from a particular meaning of the verb touch, "to affect or move mentally or emotionally," from the idea that something has "touched" your mind or heart. Your book report might describe the story you read as touching if it left you wiping away a tear.
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.
The court heard these included a video of a patient in the bath, another of a patient in bed and another with her nose almost touching one of the patients.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Flavio, touching his arm, declared to a cheering crowd in a Sao Paulo warehouse.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
To model realistic transmission conditions, the researchers created a controlled system in which infected and uninfected animals either came into direct physical contact or shared the same airspace without touching.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 24, 2026
The touching midtempo plea to a lover for attention is an album highlight: “If you try and come see me and I’m not there / Tell me you tried so I know you care.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
“Why did you do it?” she asked, touching the soft cloth.
From "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" by Eleanor Coerr
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.
