contact

From Latin contactus, from contingō (“I touch on all sides”), from tangō (“I touch”). Used in English since the 17th century.

• (noun):

  (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑntækt/

  (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒntækt/

• (verb):

  (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑntækt/, /kənˈtækt/

  (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒntækt/, /kənˈtækt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ækt

contact (countable and uncountable, plural contacts)

1. The act of touching physically; being in close association.
   • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:

     She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.

2. The establishment of communication (with).

   I haven't been in contact with her for years.

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:

     In the old days, […], he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.

3. A nodule designed to connect a device with something else.

   Touch the contact to ground and read the number again.

4. Someone with whom one is in communication.

   The salesperson had a whole binder full of contacts for potential clients.

5. (informal) A contact lens.
6. (electricity) A device designed for repetitive connections.
7. (informal, by ellipsis) Contact juggling.

   I bought myself a new contact ball last week

8. (mining) The plane between two adjacent bodies of dissimilar rock.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Raymond to this entry?)

contact (third-person singular simple present contacts, present participle contacting, simple past and past participle contacted)

1. (transitive) To touch; to come into physical contact with.

   The side of the car contacted the pedestrian.

2. (transitive) To establish communication with something or someone

   I am trying to contact my sister.

• kontakt (superseded)

Borrowed from French contact, from Latin contactus.

• IPA^(key): /kɔnˈtɑkt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: con‧tact
• Rhymes: -ɑkt

contact n (plural contacten, diminutive contactje n)

1. contact

• contactdoos
• contactlens
• contactloos
• contactpersoon
• contactstoornis
• contacttaal

• contacteren

• Afrikaans: kontakt

Borrowed from Latin contactus.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.takt/

• Audio

  (file)

contact m (plural contacts)

1. (physical) contact; contact (with another person)
2. contact (person that one knows)
3. rapport

   Vous avez un bon contact avec les enfants - you have a good rapport with children

• “contact” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).