Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Discernible by the touch; palpable.
  • adjective Possible to touch.
  • adjective Possible to be treated as fact; real or concrete.
  • adjective Possible to understand or realize.
  • adjective Law Relating to or being property of a physical nature, such as land, objects, and goods.
  • noun Something palpable or concrete.
  • noun Property having a physical form.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Capable of being touched or grasped, or of affecting the sense of touch.
  • Discernible or discriminable by the touch.
  • Capable of being possessed or realized; such that one can lay the hand on it; within reach; real: as, tangible security.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Perceptible to the touch; tactile; palpable.
  • adjective Capable of being possessed or realized; readily apprehensible by the mind; real; substantial; evident.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective touchable; able to be touched or felt; perceptible by the sense of touch; palpable
  • adjective possible to be treated as fact; real or concrete
  • adjective comprehensible by the mind; understandable
  • noun real or concrete results

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective capable of being treated as fact
  • adjective capable of being perceived; especially capable of being handled or touched or felt
  • adjective (of especially business assets) having physical substance and intrinsic monetary value
  • adjective perceptible by the senses especially the sense of touch

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Late Latin tangibilis, from Latin tangere, to touch; see tag- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin tangibilis, from tangere, "to touch".

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Examples

  • Information can be instantiated in tangible property, which is defined as a tangible object ( "ideal object") with boundaries that can be possessed.

    Tyler on the Problems of Libertarians, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • Officials pointed to what they described as tangible signs of their progress on Guantanamo, saying 11 detainees have been resettled or repatriated, one has been moved to New York for criminal trial, and another detained in the U.S. as an "enemy combatant" has pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges.

    U.S. Expected to Miss Deadline on Detainee Policy 2009

  • Just hours before he broke the news, a source close to the investigation tells me the suspect's wife came forward with what he calls tangible evidence leading to Laurean.

    CNN Transcript Jan 11, 2008 2008

  • Just hours before he broke the news, a source close to the investigation tells me, the suspect's wife came forward with what he calls tangible evidence leading to Laurean.

    CNN Transcript Jan 12, 2008 2008

  • And we're seeing what I call the tangible voter, who wants to see real results and something happening.

    CNN Transcript May 19, 2006 2006

  • BASH: His big examples, two cities where bloody battles are now replaced by what he called tangible progress because of lessons learned the hard way.

    CNN Transcript Dec 7, 2005 2005

  • BASH: His big examples, two cities where bloody battles are now replaced by what he called tangible progress because of lessons learned the hard way.

    CNN Transcript Dec 7, 2005 2005

  • If I were to ask you to make a list of words to describe what you understand about human rights, I am going to guess that a majority of you would not have the word "tangible" on the descriptive list.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Elischia Fludd 2012

  • If I were to ask you to make a list of words to describe what you understand about human rights, I am going to guess that a majority of you would not have the word "tangible" on the descriptive list. ...

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Elischia Fludd 2012

  • Vic Alboini, chief executive of Jaguar Financial Corp., a Toronto-based merchant bank that is pressing for changes at RIM to realize what he calls a tangible book value of more than $30 on the stock, said he is in talks with an unnamed independent director at RIM to discuss options for the company that could include management changes, an outright sale or a breakup of assets.

    Thestar.com - Home Page Michael Lewis 2011

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