# contact
## English
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* (noun):
    (General American) IPA: /ˈkɑntækt/
    (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈkɒntækt/
* (verb):
    (General American) IPA: /ˈkɑntækt/, /kənˈtækt/
    (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈkɒntækt/, /kənˈtækt/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ækt

### Noun

contact (countable and uncountable, plural contacts)
* 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.
* The establishment of communication (with).
    I haven't been in contact with her for years.
** 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC: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.
* The situation of being within sight of something; visual contact.
** 1983, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations. Government Activities and Transportation Subcommittee, Hazardous Obstructions at San Francisco Airport, page 126:If the pilot […] cannot establish visual contact with the ground, he must immediately execute a missed-approach procedure […]
* A nodule designed to connect a device with something else.
    Touch the contact to ground and read the number again.
* Someone who can be contacted, or with whom one is in communication.
** (by extension) Means of communication with a person, especially in the form of a telephone number.
    Who is the company's contact for sales queries?
    The salesperson had a whole binder full of contacts for potential clients.
* (informal) A contact lens.
* (electricity) A device designed for repetitive connections.
* (informal, by ellipsis) Contact juggling.
    I bought myself a new contact ball last week
* (mining) The plane between two adjacent bodies of dissimilar rock.

#### Derived terms

* anticontact
* body contact
* circle contact lens
* contactable
* contact ball
* contact binary
* contact call
* contact card
* contact details
* contact explosive
* contact-free
* contact geometry
* contact high
* contact hitter
* contactin
* contact inhibition
* contactization
* contact language
* contact lens
* contactless
* contact level
* contact line
* contact linguistics
* contact manifold
* contact metamorphism
* contact number
* contact person
* contact print
* contact process
* contact shoe
* contact shot
* contact sport
* contact time
* contact trace, contact-trace
* contact tracer
* contact tracing, contact-tracing
* contactual
* contact wire
* contact wound
* coontact
* cross-contact
* direct client contact
* electrical contact
* eye contact
* first contact
* fourth contact
* fourth point of contact
* golden contact
* intercontact
* language contact
* letterbox contact
* line of contact
* make contact with
* microcontact
* multicontact
* nanocontact
* no battle plan survives contact with the enemy
* no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy
* non-contact, noncontact
* no plan survives contact with the enemy
* no plan survives first contact with the enemy
* on contact
* overcontact
* paleocontact
* paracontact
* patient contact
* point of contact, POC
* postcontact
* precontact
* pseudocontact
* rolling contact
* second contact
* semicontact
* tactical contact
* thermal contact
* third contact
* untact

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

contact (third-person singular simple present contacts, present participle contacting, simple past and past participle contacted)
* (transitive, occasionally proscribed) To touch; to come into physical contact with.
    The side of the car contacted the pedestrian.
* (transitive, occasionally proscribed) To establish communication with (something or someone).
    I am trying to contact my sister.

#### Usage notes

* The use of contact as a verb is occasionally discountenanced. Nonetheless, its usefulness and popularity have – at least to some extent – worn down resistance.

#### Derived terms

* contactee
* contactor
* noncontacted
* noncontacting
* recontact
* supercontacting
* uncontacted

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ Rossiter W[orthington] Raymond (1881) “Contact”, in A Glossary of Mining and Metallurgical Terms. […], Easton, Pa.: [American] Institute [of Mining Engineers], […], →OCLC.

## Chinese
### Etymology

From English contact.

### Pronunciation

* Cantonese (Jyutping): kon$^1$ tek$^4$
* Cantonese
** (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
*** Jyutping: kon$^1$ tek$^4$
*** Yale: kōn tèhk
*** Cantonese Pinyin: kon$^1$ tek$^4$
*** Guangdong Romanization: kon$^1$ tég$^4$
*** Sinological IPA : /kʰɔːn⁵⁵ tʰɛːk̚²¹/

### Noun

contact
* (Hong Kong Cantonese) contact details

### Verb

contact
* (Hong Kong Cantonese) to contact; to establish communication with

## Dutch
### Alternative forms

* kontakt (superseded)

### Etymology

Borrowed from French contact, from Latin contactus.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kɔnˈtɑkt/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: con‧tact
* Rhymes: -ɑkt

### Noun

contact n (plural contacten, diminutive contactje n)
* physical contact, touching
* contact (close association)
* contact (communication, exchange)
* contact (someone with whom communication has been established)

#### Derived terms

* briefcontact
* contactadres
* contactberoep
* contactdoos
* contactgestoord
* contactkoor
* contactlens
* contactloos
* contactnummer
* contactpersoon
* contactsport
* contactstoornis
* contacttaal
* contactverbod
* e-mailcontact
* huidcontact
* knuffelcontact
* mailcontact
* stopcontact

#### Related terms

* contacteren

#### Descendants

* Afrikaans: kontak
* → Caribbean Javanese: kontag
* → Indonesian: kontak
* → Javanese: ꦏꦺꦴꦤ꧀ꦠꦏ꧀ (kontak)
* → West Frisian: kontakt

## French
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin contactus.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kɔ̃.takt/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

contact m (plural contacts)
* (physical) contact; contact (with another person)
* contact (person that one knows)
* rapport
    Vous avez un bon contact avec les enfants. ― You have a good rapport with children.

#### Derived terms

* clé de contact
* contact visuel
* lentille de contact
* prendre contact

### Further reading

* “contact”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from French contact.

### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Noun

contact n (plural contacte)
* contact