Contact: Touching, Getting in Touch, and a Useful Acquaintance
Contact is the state of touching, or communication between people. It also names a person who can help you, and a lens worn on the eye.
Contact began as physical touching and expanded outward. Its most useful modern sense is social: a contact is a person you can approach, and having contacts is a form of capital that has nothing to do with touching anyone.
- The state of touching. *Avoid contact with the skin.*
- Communication. *We lost contact after school.*
- A useful acquaintance. *She has contacts in the ministry.*
- A contact lens. *He wears contacts.*
- To get in touch (verb). *Contact us by email.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | contact | Eye contact. |
| Verb | contact | Contact the office. |
| Compound | contact details | Leave your contact details. |
| Compound | contact tracing | Contact tracing after an outbreak. |
| Related | contagion | Risk of contagion. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Please contact us if the problem continues.The verb was once criticised as jargon and is now entirely standard.
- He avoided eye contact throughout.A fixed phrase.
- Contact tracing identified fourteen exposures.Public health usage.
Contact in compounds
- Contact sport — one involving physical collision, such as rugby
- Contact lens — sits directly on the eye
- Contact tracing — finding people exposed to an infection
- Point of contact — the named person to approach
- Contact sheet — a photographic print of every frame on a roll
From Latin *contactus*, a touching, from *contingere*, to touch — the same verb behind contagion and contingent. Contagion is literally what spreads by contact.
Is contact acceptable as a verb?
Yes. Purists objected to it in the mid-twentieth century, but it has been standard for generations now.
Contact or contact with?
The verb takes a direct object: *contact the office*. The noun takes with: *in contact with the office*.