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
He not only had visual difficulties but tactile ones, too—witness his grasping his wife's head and mistaking it for a hat …—Oliver Sacks, New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2002There 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 2002The 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. 1995Near 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.
Recent Examples on the WebWith this generation of keyboards, Lenovo has not only swapped the Ctrl and Fn keys (correctly putting them in that order at lower left) but added more tactile ridges to the bottom of not only the F and J keys but Enter, Insert, and the cursor down arrow.—Eric Grevstad, PCMAG, 8 Aug. 2024 Color and texture, including rich jewel tones and cheerful doses of blues, yellows, and greens, will also be used with significant impact to lift spirits and offer tactile moments while cozying up at home.—Kristina McGuirk, Better Homes & Gardens, 6 Aug. 2024 Curiously, the album ends with four Tomin originals on synth, minus the tactile grain of the previous material but still noticeably brief and ambiguous.—Reed Jackson, SPIN, 2 Aug. 2024 Urban Sophistication, the brand known for its kitschy graphics and tactile phone cases, has teamed up with Bratz to debut a limited-edition capsule.—Hannah Malach, WWD, 31 July 2024 See all Example Sentences for tactile
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.
Word History
Etymology
French or Latin; French, from Latin tactilis, from tangere to touch — more at tangent entry 2
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