tactile

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 19, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>tactile</strong> &#149; \TAK-tul\&nbsp; &#149; <em>adjective</em><br /> <p><em>Tactile</em> describes something related to the sense of touch. It can also be used to describe something that is <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tangible">tangible</a>, that is, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perceptible">perceptible</a> by touch.</p> <p>// With the introduction of <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/haptics">haptics</a> to smartphones, receiving a call from a friend became a much more <em>tactile</em> experience. </p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tactile">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>“Throughout the Houston Zoo’s annual October celebration, animals receive extra stimulation in the form of pumpkins. Elephants like to smash and step on the pumpkins, spokesperson Jessica Reyes says, while primates pop them open to make a snack of the seeds inside. Bears can be spotted licking the pumpkins. The <em>tactile</em>, sensory enrichment encourages animals to ‘be kind of curious,’ providing the same kind of stimulation animals get in the wild, Reyes says.” — Allison Bagley, <em>The Houston Chronicle</em>, 26 Oct. 2022</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Tactile</em> has many relatives in English, from the oft-synonymous <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tangible"><em>tangible</em></a> to familiar words like <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intact#word-history"><em>intact</em></a>, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tact#word-history"><em>tact</em></a>, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tangent"><em>tangent</em></a>, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/contingent"><em>conting