Meaning & use
haptic
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a nountechnicalcomputing
Having to do with the sense of touch, especially in technology that lets users feel vibrations or pressure.
Grammar: Comes before a noun: haptic feedback.
Patterns
- haptic feedback
- haptic technology
The phone gives haptic feedback when you press a key.
The game controller uses haptic motors to simulate rough terrain.
Surgeons train with haptic devices that mimic the feel of tissue.
adjectivebefore a nountechnicalspecialist
Relating to touch as a way of perceiving and understanding things, as studied in psychology.
Grammar: Used in scientific writing about perception.
Patterns
- haptic perception
Haptic perception lets us identify a coin in a pocket without looking.
Researchers studied how haptic cues help blind readers.
Babies learn about shape through haptic exploration.
Common combinations
- haptic feedback
- Haptic feedback makes the touchscreen feel like real buttons.
- haptic technology
- Haptic technology is changing remote surgery.
- haptic glove
- A haptic glove lets the user feel virtual objects.
- haptic sensation
- The vest creates a haptic sensation like a heartbeat.
- haptic interface
- The museum built a haptic interface for touching digital sculptures.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tactile
- Tactile is the common word for anything related to touch, but haptic more often describes technology and perception research.
- touch-based
- Touch-based is a plain phrase that fits everyday writing, whereas haptic sounds technical.
- tangible
- Tangible means able to be touched or clearly real, not about technology that produces touch sensations.
Opposites
Word family
- haptics noun
- the science and technology of touch feedback
- haptically adverb
- by means of touch
Commonly confused: haptic or tactile? haptic or hapless?
haptic vs tactile
Tactile is the everyday word about touch, as in a tactile surface, while haptic usually refers to touch technology or the study of touch perception.
haptic vs hapless
Hapless means unlucky. It looks similar to haptic but has no link to touch.
Practice
Your phone vibrates slightly when you tap the keyboard. This is called ____ feedback.
Choose one answer.
Haptic feedback is touch sensation from a device. Optic relates to sight, acoustic to sound, and hapless means unlucky.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “haptic”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.