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Reach Out and Touch the Meaning of Tactile
Tactile has many relatives in English, from the oft-synonymous tangible to familiar words like intact, tact, tangent, contingent, and even entire. All of these can be traced back to the Latin verb tangere, meaning “to touch.” Tactile was adopted by English speakers in the early 1600s (possibly by way of the French tactile) from the Latin adjective tactilis (“tangible”). In light of tactile having tangere for a touchstone, its dual senses of “perceptible by touch” and “of, relating to, or being the sense of touch” are perfectly sensible. Since the advent of film, television, and, ahem, touchscreens, a new sense also appears to be developing, as tactile is increasingly used to suggest that something visual is particularly evocative or suggestive of a certain texture.
Examples of tactile in a Sentence
Oliver Sacks, New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2002
There is a tactile and therefore somatic dimension to stroking the chalk that keeps the artist in constant, responsible and responsive touch with his emerging creation.
—Jed Perl, New Republic, 17 June 2002
The keyboard has good tactile feedback, and the touch pad is responsive without being too twitchy.
—Bruce Brown, PC Magazine, 20 Feb. 2001
… nothing prepared me for the tactile reality of the original volumes, leaf after carefully written leaf over which his hand had travelled …
—Edmund Morris, New Yorker, 16 Jan. 1995
Near midday the heat of the sun bounced up from the bare patches of soil to hit with an almost tactile force.
—Edward O. Wilson, Smithsonian, October 1984
The thick brushstrokes give the painting a tactile quality.
Maya Polton, Parents, 17 May 2024
The natural and tactile materials create a sophisticated, organic inner-city refuge with a Yorkshire stone fireplace and tree-trunk tabletops.
—Stacey Wreathall and Dafydd Gwyon, Travel + Leisure, 15 May 2024
But giving up this slower, more tactile way of expressing ourselves may come at a significant cost, according to a growing body of research that's uncovering the surprising cognitive benefits of taking pen to paper, or even stylus to iPad — for both children and adults.
—Jonathan Lambert, NPR, 11 May 2024
Lo abundantly applies tactile materials such as natural oak and granite, blending serenity and stimulation.
—Melinda Sheckells, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 May 2024
At the downtown Los Angeles shoot, the photogenic couple are in turn tactile and bantering, turning a frigid downtown warehouse downright balmy dancing to songs like Reyna Tropical’s No Me Quieres and Nelly’s Shake Ya Tailfeather.
—Andrea Mandell, Peoplemag, 9 May 2024
That massive touch surface is covered in glass and provides haptic tactile feedback.
—PCMAG, 5 May 2024
The tactile flourish of a touchscreen gave Luddites the tools to chop samples and program drum beats with an efficiency that would’ve made J Dilla blush, but the novelty of such pursuits became a substantial roadblock to ever being taken seriously by those with pro studio bona fides.
—Pete Cottell, WIRED, 2 May 2024
Writing has always had that tactile quality for me.
—Alex Williams, New York Times, 1 May 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tactile.' 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 tactile
Cite this Entry
“Tactile.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tactile. Accessed 23 May. 2024.
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Medical Definition
tactile
2 of 2 noun
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