Tangible

How to spell tangible

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce tangible

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tangible mean?

1. adjectiveClear and definite enough to be regarded as real; capable of being shown or measured.
2. adjectiveAble to be perceived by touch; having a physical form.

Tangible in a sentence

• The new strategy finally produced tangible results in sales.

• A house is a tangible asset, unlike a patent or a brand name.

• Investors wanted tangible evidence before committing any money.

• The museum let visitors handle tangible replicas of the ancient coins.

Where does tangible come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin tangibilis, meaning 'able to be touched', which was built on the verb tangere, 'to touch'. Late Latin formed the adjective by adding -ibilis, the ending that signals 'capable of being done', so the literal sense was simply 'touchable'. English picked it up in the late 1500s, at first for things that could be felt with the hand, and soon after for anything real and concrete enough to be grasped in the mind. The same tangere root quietly sits inside a whole family of English words, including 'contact', 'tangent', and 'intact' (literally 'not touched'). The spelling trap is twofold: the soft g sounds like a j, and the ending is -ible rather than -able, which writers must simply remember.

How the word is built

• tang- (from Latin tangere: to touch)
• -ible (able to be)