Word Study
contact
CIDE DICTIONARY
contact, n. [L. contactus, fr. contingere, -tactum, to touch on all sides. See Contingent.].
- A close union or junction of bodies; a touching or meeting. [1913 Webster]
- The property of two curves, or surfaces, which meet, and at the point of meeting have a common direction. [1913 Webster]
- The plane between two adjacent bodies of dissimilar rock. Raymond. [1913 Webster]
- A metallic conducting component of an electrical device connected to a circuit within and so situated that it may form a conducting pathway to an external power source or device when contacted by another conductor; as, the contact on a standard light bulb has the shape of a screw for easy insertion into the socket. [PJC]
- A person who serves to commmunicate information to or from one group to another, whether formally or informally; as, a good Washington reporter has contacts in the White House. [PJC]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
contact, n. & v.
--n.
1 the state or condition of touching, meeting, or communicating.
2 a person who is or may be communicated with for information, supplies, assistance, etc.
3 Electr. a a connection for the passage of a current. b a device for providing this.
4 a person likely to carry a contagious disease through being associated with an infected person.
5 (usu. in pl.) colloq. a contact lens.
--v.tr.
1 get into communication with (a person).
2 begin correspondence or personal dealings with.
--n.
1 the state or condition of touching, meeting, or communicating.
2 a person who is or may be communicated with for information, supplies, assistance, etc.
3 Electr. a a connection for the passage of a current. b a device for providing this.
4 a person likely to carry a contagious disease through being associated with an infected person.
5 (usu. in pl.) colloq. a contact lens.
--v.tr.
1 get into communication with (a person).
2 begin correspondence or personal dealings with.
Idiom
contact lens a small lens placed directly on the eyeball to correct the vision. contact print a photographic print made by placing a negative directly on sensitized paper etc. and illuminating it. contact sport a sport in which participants necessarily come into bodily contact with one another.
Derivative
contactable adj.
Etymology
L contactus f. contingere (as com-, tangere touch)
THESAURUS
contact
ESP, accord, acquaintance, answer, approach, arbitrator, assail the ear, association, attouchement, be heard, breath, broker, brush, brush by, caress, caress the ear, closeness, come in contact, commerce, communicate with, communication, communion, companionship, concord, congress, conjunction, connection, contiguity, contingence, conversation, converse, correspond, correspond with, correspondence, cutaneous sense, dealing, dealings, empathy, establish connection, exchange, feel, feeling, fellowship, fingertip caress, flick, friend, gain a hearing, get, get across, get hold of, get through to, get to, glance, go-between, graze, hand-mindedness, harmony, hit, impinge, impingement, impingence, in, information, interaction, interagent, interchange, intercommunication, intercommunion, intercourse, intermediary, intermediate, intermedium, internuncio, interplay, interpleader, interrogate, junction, kiss, lambency, lap, lick, light touch, linguistic intercourse, maintain connection, make advances, make an impression, make contact with, make oneself heard, make overtures, make up to, mediator, medium, message, middleman, nearness, negotiant, negotiator, nudge, oneness, osculate, osculation, phone, propinquity, proximity, question, raise, rapport, reach, reach the ear, register, relate to, relation, reply, reply to, respond to, response, ring up, rub, scrape, sense of touch, shave, sideswipe, skim, skirt, social intercourse, speak to, speak with, speaking, speech, speech circuit, speech situation, squeak by, stroke, sympathy, tactile sense, taction, talking, tangency, tap, telepathy, telephone, tentative contact, tentative poke, touch, touching, traffic, truck, two-way communication, understanding, union, unity, whisper, write toROGET THESAURUS
contact
Contiguity
N contiguity, contact, proximity, apposition, abuttal, juxtaposition, abutment, osculation, meeting, appulse, rencontre, rencounter, syzygy, coincidence, coexistence, adhesion, touching, (touch), borderland, frontier, tangent, abutter, contiguous, touching, in contact, conterminous, end to end, osculatory, pertingent, tangential, hand to hand, close to, with no interval.VB be contiguous, join, adjoin, abut on, march with, graze, touch, meet, osculate, come in contact, coincide, coexist, adhere, juxtapose, contact, join (unite), link (vinculum).
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