tact
noun/tækt/
/tækt/
[uncountable]- the ability to deal with difficult or embarrassing situations carefully and without doing or saying anything that will annoy or upset other people synonym sensitivity
- Settling the dispute required great tact and diplomacy.
- She is not exactly known for her tact.
Extra Examples- The incident should have been handled with more tact by the police.
- The situation called for considerable tact.
- Their host, who was the soul of tact, never mentioned the incident again.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- great
- have
- call for
- need
- …
- with tact
- a lack of tact
- tact and diplomacy
Word Originmid 17th cent. (denoting the sense of touch): via French from Latin tactus ‘touch, sense of touch’, from tangere ‘to touch’.Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
Check pronunciation:
tact