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Haptic felt its way into English in the 19th century as a back-formation of haptics, a noun which was borrowed from the New Latin hapticē (meaning "science of touch," and derived ultimately from the Greek haptesthai, meaning "to touch") in the 1700s. Haptic was originally a medical synonym for tactile. By the 20th century, it had developed a psychological sense, describing individuals whose perception supposedly depended primarily on touch rather than sight. Although almost no one today divides humans into haptic and visual personalities, English retains the broadened psychological sense of haptic as well as the older "tactile" sense.
Examples of haptic in a Sentence
Sean Hollister, The Verge, 2 June 2024
The way the Pencil delivers haptic feedback alongside the Squeeze feature is particularly outstanding.
—Eric Zeman, PCMAG, 31 May 2024
Innovative haptic device enables robots to perfect soft touch abilities
Simtec.
—Ellie Gabel, Discover Magazine, 27 May 2024
The maddening setup offers a postage stamp of a haptic touchscreen on the steering wheel to control simple things such as the radio station.
—Hannah Elliott, Fortune Europe, 26 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for haptic 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'haptic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near haptic
Cite this Entry
“Haptic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/haptic. Accessed 6 Jun. 2024.
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