From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtacttact /tækt/ ●○○ noun [uncountable] POLITEthe ability to be careful about what you say or do, so that you do not upset or embarrass other people → tactful, tactless With great tact, Clive persuaded her to apologize.
Examples from the Corpus
tact• Telephoning the elderly who live alone needs even more care and tact than talking with them in the course of a visit.• But few of the students were accustomed to thinking in critical terms; others, like Philip, were restrained by tact.• Important personal traits for funeral directors are composure, tact, and the ability to communicate easily with the public.• Anyone else would have had tact enough to at least dress it up a little, she thought wryly.• Teresa's skills as an editor and her tact with sensitive authors were respected within the department.• They also need tact, good judgment, and the ability to establish effective personal relationships to oversee staff.• Helping people who have marriage problems requires a great deal of tact and patience.• Even more important were his sensitivity, tact and diplomacy in an entirely novel situation.• But the social tact of the Masai was most impressively demonstrated by the fact that they rarely asked for anything.• The old woman thrust a picture of a plain-looking girl into Meryl's hand. "Your granddaughter? She's lovely, " said Meryl with tact.• Wullschlager tackles the crucial but opaque question of Andersen's sexuality with tact, resisting psychoanalytic facilities.Origin tact (1600-1700) French “sense of touch”, from Latin tactus, from tangere “to touch” 