tang-, tact-, tast-, ting-, -tig -tag, -teg-
(Latin: touch, feel; try; reach; handle; evaluate, estimate)
A reduced perception of touch: Mindy was experiencing tactile hypoesthesia or numbness in her feet after the operation on her cracked vertebrae.
tactility (s) (noun)
A feeling of pressure, heat, or pain when touched.
tactilogy (s) (noun)
The study or science of general sensations from various kinds of touching; including:
- Delicate touch, or the ability to detect a light contact between an object and the skin.
- Pain that warns the brain about a possible injury from an external stimulus and can trigger a reflex withdrawal.
- Heat in which some free nerve endings respond specifically to heat.
- Cold on the skin which can be detected by specialized end organs and extreme cold also stimulates pain receptors.
- Pressure when a change in pressure on the skin is detected by specialized end organs called pacinian corpuscles.
A contact or a coming together, as of objects or surfaces.: "When a person senses being touched or touches something, he or she is involved with taction or is using taction."
tactless (adjective), more tactless, most tactless
1. Descriptive of an individual who is bluntly inconsiderate or showing a lack of good judgment; especially, when talking about something that is supposed to be private: A tactless person can't get in touch with other people or have good relationships with them because he or she has a tendency to offend them.
2. Etymology: from Latin tact, "a sense of touching or feeling" + -less, "lacking or without something."
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2. Etymology: from Latin tact, "a sense of touching or feeling" + -less, "lacking or without something."
Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
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An instrument used to measure the sensitivity of touching.
An organ of the body that is used as a feeler or an organ of touch: "A tactor is a specialized skin sensory receptor that responds to mechanical stimuli about such mechanical changes in the environment as movement, tension, and pressure."
A specialized cell or group of nerve endings that responds to sensory stimuli or touching.
tactual (adjective)
A reference to feeling or to the sense of touch.
tangent (adjective)
Making contact at a single point or along a line; touching but not intersecting.
1. A line that touches a circle, surface, or sphere at just one point.
2. A sudden digression or change of course: "The lawyer went off on a tangent during the courtroom argument."
2. A sudden digression or change of course: "The lawyer went off on a tangent during the courtroom argument."
"Gerardo went off on a tangent about what happened to her when her car was hit from behind by another car."
tangential (adjective)
1. Merely touching or slightly connected.
2. Relating to, or moving along or in the direction of a line, curve, or surface meeting another line, curve, or surface at a common point.
2. Relating to, or moving along or in the direction of a line, curve, or surface meeting another line, curve, or surface at a common point.
tangentially (adverb)
Merely touching or slightly connected.
tangibility (noun)
1. That which can be perceived or recognized by touch.
2. Something that can be easily known with the senses.
2. Something that can be easily known with the senses.
tangible (adjective), more tangible, most tangible
1. Concerning something which can be seen or experienced; especially, by being touched or easily noticed: When Jerome received his statement from the bank, he was shocked to find that his tangible balance of interest for his financial statement had decreased in value.
2. Etymology: from Latin tangibilis, "that may be touched" from tangere "to touch."
© ALL rights are reserved.
Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
2. Etymology: from Latin tangibilis, "that may be touched" from tangere "to touch."
