Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Relating to, involving, or perceptible to the sense of touch.
  • adjective Characterized by or conveying an illusion of tangibility.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In art criticism, noting the quality of solidity in nature, which is perfectly apprehended only by the sense of touch, and which is better represented by certain painters than by others. ‘Tactile’ in this sense is a translation of the German taktisch, used by Riegl in 1893.
  • Of or pertaining to the sense of touch.
  • Adapted or used for feeling or touching; tactual: as, the whiskers of the cat are tactile organs; a mouse's ear or a bat's wing is a highly tactile surface.
  • Effected by or consisting in the action of touching; produced or caused by physical contact.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the organs, or the sense, of touch; perceiving, or perceptible, by the touch; capable of being touched
  • adjective sense (Physiol.), the sense of touch, or pressure sense. See Touch.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Tangible; perceptible to the sense of touch.
  • adjective Used for feeling.
  • adjective Of, or relating to the sense of touch.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective producing a sensation of touch
  • adjective of or relating to or proceeding from the sense of touch

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin tāctilis, from tāctus, past participle of tangere, to touch; see tact.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French tactile, from Latin tactilis ("that may be touched, tangible"), from tangere ("to touch").

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