Contact

How to spell contact

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce contact

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does contact mean?

1. nounCommunication or a connection with a person or organisation.
2. verbTo get in touch with someone by phone, message, or in person.
3. nounThe state of two things or surfaces touching.

Contact in a sentence

• noun

  She lost contact with her old colleagues after moving abroad.

• verb

  The bank will contact you if the payment fails.

• noun

  The wires must not come into contact with the metal casing.

• noun

  The recruiter is a useful contact in the finance industry.

• verb

  Customers can contact support through the website.

• noun

  The brake pad wears down with constant contact.

Where does contact come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Contact comes from the Latin contactus, a noun meaning 'a touching together', which was formed from the verb contingere, 'to touch closely' or 'to be in contact with'. That verb combined the prefix con-, meaning 'together' or 'with', and tangere, meaning 'to touch', so at its literal heart the word simply describes two things touching. English adopted it in the early 1600s, at first in the physical and scientific sense of surfaces meeting, before the meaning widened to cover communication and the people through whom we keep in touch. The same tangere root still touches a surprising spread of English words, including 'tangible', 'tangent', and even 'contagious'. Remembering that buried 'tact' (touch) helps explain the spelling, since it ends in -tact rather than the softer sound the ear sometimes expects.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• tact (from tangere: to touch)