Tactical

How to spell tactical

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce tactical

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tactical mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to careful planning or actions designed to achieve a specific short-term goal, especially in warfare, business, or competition.

Tactical in a sentence

• The general ordered a tactical retreat to higher ground.

• Closing the smaller branch was a tactical decision to cut costs quickly.

Where does tactical come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Greek taktikos, meaning 'fit for arranging' or 'pertaining to arrangement', which itself grew from tassein, the verb 'to arrange' or 'to put in order'. In military Greek this naturally came to describe the art of arranging soldiers in formation, giving rise to the noun ta taktika, 'matters of arrangement', the source of the related word 'tactics'. English absorbed the family through Latin tactica and modern European usage, with 'tactical' appearing in the early 1800s to describe anything relating to the deployment of forces in actual combat. Over time the sense widened well beyond the battlefield, so today a tactical move can be a calculated step in business, politics, or sport. It helps with the spelling to remember the buried Greek root tact, 'arrangement', which has nothing to do with the unrelated word 'tact' meaning social delicacy, even though they look identical.

How the word is built

• tact- (from Greek taktikos: arranged, ordered)
• -ic (adjective)
• -al (adjective suffix)