Intact

How to spell intact

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce intact

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does intact mean?

1. adjectiveWhole and undamaged, with nothing missing or broken.

Intact in a sentence

• The parcel arrived with the seal still intact.

• Despite the crash, the fuel tank remained intact.

Where does intact come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from the Latin intactus, which literally meant 'untouched'. It was built from the negative prefix in- meaning 'not' joined to tactus, the past participle of the verb tangere, 'to touch'. The same tangere root quietly survives in a whole family of everyday English words, including 'tactile', 'tangent', 'contact', and 'tangible', all of which carry a sense of touching or contact. English took intact on board in the 1400s, originally describing something kept whole and unharmed because nothing had laid a hand on it. From that idea of being literally untouched it broadened to mean whole, complete, and undamaged, the sense it still carries today; remembering that hidden 'touch' inside the 'tact' helps fix the spelling.

How the word is built

• in- (not)
• tact (from Latin tangere: to touch)