communication or connection with someone
After moving abroad, Mia kept contact with her grandparents by video call every week.
I finally lost contact with my old teacher when her email stopped working.
✦ Sense extended from physical touch to the idea of maintaining connection by letters or calls in the mid-19th century.
to communicate with someone, especially by phone, email, or letter
You can contact me at this number if you have any questions.
The travel agent contacted the hotel to confirm our reservation.
✦ Verb sense developed from the noun in early 20th-century English, when new communication tools like telephone appeared.
the state of two people or things touching or meeting
The baseball made contact with the window and cracked the glass.
Wear gloves so your skin doesn’t come into direct contact with the hot pan.
✦ From Latin ‘contactus’ meaning ‘a touching’, from ‘contingere’ ‘to touch’.
a person you know who can give help, information, or introductions
Emma used her uncle as a contact to find a summer job at the bank.
The reporter called her police contact for details about the accident.
✦ From the idea of someone you can ‘get in touch with’; popular in business English since the 20th century.
to touch or meet something physically
If the wires contact, they could cause a short circuit.
The rocket must avoid contacting space debris during launch.
✦ Technical in-transitive verb use recorded since the late 19th century in engineering manuals.
a thin lens worn directly on the eye (short form of ‘contact lens’)
I put my left contact in backwards this morning and it felt uncomfortable.
He keeps spare contacts in his wallet just in case one falls out.
✦ Shortened from “contact lens,” first used in the 1960s.
