: of, relating to, or having (such) an arrangement or pattern
phonotactic
2
: showing orientation or movement directed by a (specified) force or agent
geotactic
Note: Adjectives formed with -tactic usually correspond to nouns ending in -taxis.
Example Sentences
Noun an effective tactic for solving crimes We may need to change tactics. a specialist in naval tactics
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Have Karinchak and the Guardians come far enough where a scare tactic isn’t going to distract them a division title? Paul Hoynes, cleveland, 10 Sep. 2022 Serra said Carolina Green took acres of grass and grew it on plastic trays, a tactic that helped strengthen the grass before it was brought to Chicago. Colleen Kane, Chicago Tribune, 7 Sep. 2022 Bochenkov responded by suing the commission, a tactic that in the past year has become more popular with neighbors or neighborhood groups opposing large new developments. Don Stacom, Hartford Courant, 7 Sep. 2022 What followed was months of abuse and threats, eventually leading to armed police showing up at Sorrenti's home in Ontario after trolls called in a fake emergency, a harassment tactic known as swatting that has led to people being killed. Donie O'sullivan And Richa Naik, CNN, 6 Sep. 2022 His opponent, Republican Senate nominee J.D. Vance, responded to Ryan’s campaign tactic in a radio appearance on Fox Across America with Jimmy Failla. Alexander Hall, Fox News, 2 Sep. 2022 Spitz moved to the center of lane 3 to foil that tactic. David Woods, The Indianapolis Star, 2 Sep. 2022 Team Biden is also really overselling the act; that tactic tends to backfire. Karl Rove, WSJ, 31 Aug. 2022 McCormick soundly condemned that tactic in her Kohlberg-DecoPac ruling. Shawn Tully, Fortune, 27 Aug. 2022
Adjective
That kind of legacy of going to credits as a lesser evil than deductions and exclusions for the upside-down subsidy effect is one of his legacies from the tactic expenditure analysis. Robert Goulder, Forbes, 8 June 2022 Patrick Sweeney, the political director for EveryLibrary, a nonprofit group that advocates for libraries, called the tactic novel but unsurprising. Hannah Natanson, Washington Post, 20 May 2022 When the pandemic first plunged the global economy into a crisis, as businesses, government offices and schools closed, the Fed cut interest rates to near zero, a tactic many central banks had also used after the financial crisis in the mid-2000s. Hamza Shaban, Anchorage Daily News, 16 June 2022 Federal immigration authorities have used extensive mobile location data to track movements at hundreds of thousands of locations in the U.S., a tactic drawing criticism from civil liberties and privacy advocates, Politico reported Monday. Jacob Carpenter, Fortune, 18 July 2022 In states such as Maryland, a court ruled that lyrics are admissible as evidence, a tactic disproportionately targeting Black defendants. Neena Rouhani, Billboard, 14 June 2022 The defendants were about 100 people who had been ticketed for misdemeanors — a tactic Rainbows liken to harassment. Karin Brulliard, Washington Post, 3 July 2022 Sofia Ongele, Gen-Z for Change’s digital strategy coordinator, has used the tactic multiple times.NBC News, 3 May 2022 Exploiting the full range of motion on exercises like the dumbbell bench press and cable crossover was another tactic Laico used to place a greater stretch on the muscle and maximize the effectiveness of each rep. Philip Ellis, Men's Health, 6 June 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
borrowed from New Latin tactica "art of deploying troops in combat," borrowed from Greek taktikḗ (originally modifying téchnē "art, skill "), noun derivative from feminine of taktikós "of ordering or arranging, of ordering troops in combat"; in recent use also as back-formation from tactics — more at tactic entry 2
Adjective
borrowed from Greek taktikós "of ordering or arranging, of ordering troops in combat," from taktós "ordered, prescribed" (verbal adjective of tássein —Attic táttein— "to draw up in order [as troops, ships], post, station, place in order, prescribe, assess," of uncertain origin) + -ikos-ic entry 1
Note: The derivative noun tagḗ "line of battle" (and possibly Thessalian tāgós "commander") show that the base of the verb was tag-, which should have resulted in *tázein rather than tássein; the latter was presumably introduced from generalization of the voiceless consonant in the aorist and in derivatives such as taktós, táxis, etc. The base tag- has been compared with the Parthian title tgmdr (read as *taɣma-dára "order-giver"), Old Persian ham-ataxšata "they have put in order," Tocharian B tāś "commander," and (semantically much more distant) Lithuanian patogùs "convenient, comfortable," sutógti "to get married, ally oneself." R. Beekes proposes a verb *teh2g-, invoking a law to delete the laryngeal in order to avoid positing a base with *a (Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2010).
Adjective combining form
borrowed from Greek -taktikos, after pairs such as prótaxis "placement in front, prefixing," protaktikós "used as a prefix" — more at tactic entry 2
ADJECTIVE | VERB + TACTIC | TACTIC + VERB | PREPOSITION | PHRASESADJECTIVE➤subtle巧妙的戰術▸➤legitimate正當手段◇Some players see injuring their opponent as a legitimate tactic.有些運動員把使對手受傷看作正當的戰術。➤devious, dubious, stealth, underhand不誠實的/不道德的/見不得人的/奸詐的手段▸➤extreme, scare, shock, terror極端方式;恐嚇戰術;震驚戰術;恐怖手段▸➤guerrilla, militant, revolutionary, violent游擊戰術;軍事戰術;革命手段;暴力手段▸➤aggressive, bully-boy, bullying, hardball, heavy-handed, strong-arm積極主動的策略;欺凌手段;強硬策略;高壓手段;強制手段▸➤non-violent, softly-softly非暴力手段;耐心細緻的方式▸➤intimidation, psychological恫嚇/心理戰術▸➤interrogation審訊策略▸➤smear抹黑手段▸➤avoidance, delaying, diversionary, spoiling, stalling迴避策略;拖延戰術;牽制戰術;破壞戰術◇Children are adept at delaying tactics.孩子們很會磨蹭。➤negative, time-wasting消極戰術;浪費時間的戰術◇The coach was criticized for his negative tactics.教練由於戰術消極而受到了批評。➤short-term短期策略▸➤campaigning, marketing, negotiating, promotional, sales競選/營銷/談判/促銷/銷售策略▸➤military, naval, parliamentary, police, political軍事戰術;海軍戰術;議會策略;警方戰術;政治策略VERB + TACTIC➤decide on, discuss, plan, talk (about), work out決定戰術;討論戰術;策劃戰術;制訂戰術◇She decided on a stalling tactic.她決定採取拖延戰術。➤adopt, apply, deploy, employ, try, use採用/運用/部署/應用/試用/使用戰術◇the temptation to use underhand tactics使用卑鄙手段的誘惑◇They were desperate enough to try shock tactics.他們不顧一切要採用震驚戰術。➤resort to, stoop to訴諸/卑鄙到用⋯手段◇I refuse to stoop to such bullying tactics.我拒絕下作到使用這種霸道手段。➤change, rethink, shift, switch改變戰術;重新考慮策略;轉變策略◇They would do well to switch tactics.他們最好轉變一下策略。➤demand, require需要⋯戰術◇Longer races demand different tactics.較長距離的速度競賽需要採取不同的戰術。TACTIC + VERB➤pay off, succeed, work戰術得當/成功/奏效◇His strong-arm tactics paid off.他的強制手段效果很好。➤backfire, fail戰術事與願違/失敗PREPOSITION➤tactic for對應⋯的策略◇Teachers learn tactics for dealing with aggressive children.老師們應學習對付愛惹是生非的孩子的策略。PHRASES➤a variety of tactics多種戰術◇We use a variety of tactics to make learning fun.我們運用各種策略使學習有趣起來。