English

Noun

tact ‎(plural tacts)

1. The sense of touch; feeling.
   • Robert Southey

     Did you suppose that I could not make myself sensible to tact as well as sight?

   • J. Le Conte

     Now, sight is a very refined tact.

2. (music) The stroke in beating time.
3. Sensitive mental touch; special skill or faculty; nice perception or discernment; ready power of appreciating and doing what is required by circumstances.
   • Thomas Babington Macaulay

     He had formed plans not inferior in grandeur and boldness to those of Richelieu, and had carried them into effect with a tact and wariness worthy of Mazarin.

   • Thomas Babington Macaulay

     A tact which surpassed the tact of her sex as much as the tact of her sex surpassed the tact of ours.

4. The ability to deal with embarrassing situations carefully and without doing or saying anything that will annoy or upset other people; careful consideration in dealing with others to avoid giving offense; the ability to say the right thing.

   By the use of tact, she was able to calm her jealous husband.

   I used tact when I told my fat uncle that his extra weight made him look better.

5. (psychology) A verbal operant which is controlled by a nonverbal stimulus (such as an object, event, or property of an object) and is maintained by nonspecific social reinforcement (praise).
   • 2013, Jacob L. Gewirtz, William M. Kurtines, Jacob L. Lamb, Intersections With Attachment

     Skinner (1957) saw such tacts as responses that are reinforced socially.

Derived terms

• tactful
• tactless

Translations

Verb

tact ‎(third-person singular simple present tacts, present participle tacting, simple past and past participle tacted)

1. (psychology) To use a tact (a kind of verbal operant; see noun sense).

External links

• tact in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• tact in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

French

Pronunciation

Noun

tact m ‎(plural tacts)

1. tact