Meaning & use
tactics
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Meanings
nounplural
The particular steps or methods someone chooses in order to reach a goal, especially in a contest or dispute.
Grammar: Takes a plural verb: the tactics were clever. The singular tactic exists but is used for one single method.
Patterns
- tactics for something
- tactics to do something
- use tactics
The coach changed the team's tactics at halftime.
Protesters used delaying tactics to hold up the vote.
Her bargaining tactics left the other side confused.
noununcountablemilitary
The art of arranging and moving armed forces in battle.
Grammar: Uncountable and usually takes a singular verb in this sense: tactics is taught at the academy.
Patterns
- tactics of something
Officers study tactics and strategy at the staff college.
Naval tactics changed once aircraft carriers appeared.
Word forms
| singular | tactic |
|---|
Common combinations
- delaying tactics
- The company used delaying tactics to avoid paying.
- scare tactics
- The ad relied on scare tactics rather than facts.
- change tactics
- When the first plan failed, they changed tactics.
- strong-arm tactics
- Strong-arm tactics did not win the staff over.
- tactics and strategy
- Good tactics and strategy together win championships.
- adopt a tactic
- The shop adopted a new tactic to attract customers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- strategy
- Strategy is the overall long-range plan, while tactics are the particular short-term moves that carry it out.
- approach
- Approach is a broad, neutral word for a way of dealing with something, and does not suggest outmaneuvering an opponent.
- maneuvers
- Maneuvers are skilled, often clever movements, and can suggest cunning more than tactics does.
- methods
- Methods are ways of doing something in general, whereas tactics imply a contest or a goal against resistance.
Word family
- tactic noun
- one single method used to achieve an aim
- tactical adjective
- relating to or showing careful short-term planning
- tactically adverb
- in a way that shows clever planning of moves
- tactician noun
- a person skilled at planning moves to gain an advantage
Commonly confused: tactics or strategy? tactics or tact?
tactics vs strategy
Strategy is the big plan and its long-term aims, while tactics are the smaller moves used along the way. A team's strategy might be to win through defense, and its tactics change each match.
tactics vs tact
Tact is sensitivity in dealing with people without offending them. It is not related to tactics in meaning.
Practice
The general's long-term strategy never changed, but his battlefield ___ were adjusted daily.
Choose one answer.
Tactics are the short-term moves used to carry out a larger plan. Strategies contradicts the idea that the long-term strategy stayed fixed, and tactic and tact do not suit the plural verb or the meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tactics”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.