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contact

/ˈkɑːntækt//ˈkɒntækt/·noun, verb
the state of touching; communication with someone
Fig. 1 — The circuit holds its little gap of air like a held breath: battery ready, lamp dark, two brass posts a finger-width apart.
01Definition

Contact is touch made official: Latin con- 'together' plus tangere 'to touch', the same root as tangible. Physically it is the meeting of surfaces — wheels in contact with the road, a switch closing a circuit; socially it is communication — to make contact, stay in contact, lose contact. The verb means to get in touch with, and takes its object directly: you contact someone, never 'contact with' them. From the physical sense come contact lenses (worn touching the eye) and the business point of contact — the person you touch first.

02In use
  • iThe lamp lights the instant the two contacts meet; a millimetre short is still dark.
  • iiPlease contact the office before Friday if the dates need to change.
  • iiiAfter the storm cut the lines, the island lost all contact with the mainland for two days.
03Collocations
  • make contact with
  • in contact with
  • point of contact
  • eye contact
  • contact details

Family contact (verb) · contactless (adjective)

04Relations

=touch, connection, communication, reach, meet

≠separate, isolation, disconnect

06TOEFL & IELTS

The grammar is the exam point: the VERB is transitive — contact me, contact the university — while the NOUN takes prepositions — in contact with, make contact with. 'Contact with me' after the verb is the classic learner error. Stress stays on CON- for both noun and verb, unlike record or impact. In writing tasks, formal letters live on this word: 'please do not hesitate to contact me' remains the standard closing move.

07Asked
Is it 'contact me' or 'contact with me'?
Contact me — the verb takes its object directly, with no preposition: contact the supplier, contact us on this number. 'Contact with me' imports the NOUN's grammar into the verb slot, which is the single commonest error with this word. The noun does take with: stay in contact with me, make contact with the team. Verb bare, noun with with — and for channels, you contact someone ON a number, AT an address. The scene above draws the noun's core: near is worth nothing; the lamp lights only at touch.
What is the difference between 'in contact with' and 'in touch with'?
Register and warmth. In touch is the friendly everyday idiom — keep in touch, I'll be in touch; in contact is cooler and more formal, at home in reports and official letters — 'the agencies remain in contact'. Both mean maintained communication; only in contact also covers literal touching, which is why physics prefers it: surfaces in contact, never in touch.
What does point of contact mean?
In business English, the named person you communicate with — 'Maria is your point of contact for invoicing' — often shortened to POC in emails. The phrase borrows straight from physics, where a point of contact is the exact spot two surfaces touch. One person, one spot where your organisation touches theirs: the metaphor does real work.
Why are contact lenses called contacts?
Because of where they sit: unlike glasses, which work at a distance from the eye, the lens rests in direct contact with the cornea's tear film. English then clipped the phrase — contact lenses became contacts — giving the word yet another noun sense. Context keeps it clear: losing your contacts at a party and losing your contacts in your phone are different emergencies.
What is the difference between contact and contract?
One r, two Latin verbs: contact is touching (tangere), contract is a drawing-together (trahere) — an agreement, or the act of shrinking. Typos aside, the meanings rarely collide, but 'please contract me' is a real and unfortunate email classic. One memory hook: contact keeps the tact of tactile — touch; contract keeps the tract of traction — pulling.
Does the stress in contact change between noun and verb?
In standard use, no — dictionaries list a second-syllable verb variant, but first-syllable stress is the norm for both jobs, which makes contact an exception worth noticing. Unlike REC-ord/re-CORD or IM-pact/im-PACT, it keeps CON-: CON-tact the office, a point of CON-tact. If you have learned the noun–verb stress-shift rule, this word is on the list of words that politely ignore it, along with comment and process (in most senses).