Meaning & use
tangible
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Able to be felt by touch or seen to exist as a physical thing.
Grammar: Before a noun or after be: tangible assets.
Patterns
- tangible assets
- tangible objects
A hologram is not a tangible object.
The museum keeps tangible traces of the past.
Land and buildings are tangible assets.
adjectivecomparable
Clear and real enough to be noticed or measured.
Grammar: Often about results: tangible benefits.
Patterns
- tangible results
- tangible evidence
The program produced tangible results.
There was no tangible evidence of fraud.
Tension in the room was tangible.
Word forms
| comparative | more tangible |
|---|---|
| superlative | most tangible |
Common combinations
- tangible benefits
- Exercise brings tangible benefits.
- tangible evidence
- The police found tangible evidence.
- tangible results
- We need tangible results.
- tangible assets
- The firm's tangible assets include its factory.
- tangible improvement
- A tangible improvement in air quality.
Synonyms and how they differ
- concrete
- Concrete means real and specific as opposed to abstract.
- palpable
- Palpable often describes feelings so strong they seem touchable.
- physical
- Physical simply means of the body or material things.
- material
- Material means made of matter, often contrasted with spiritual.
Opposites
Word family
- tangibly adverb
- in a clear, real way
- tangibility noun
- the quality of being tangible
- intangible adjective
- not physical or clearly measurable
Commonly confused: tangible or tangential?
tangible vs tangential
Tangential means only slightly connected to the main topic.
Practice
Which is a tangible result of a school's fundraising?
Choose one answer.
A building is a physical result you can see. The others are intangible.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tangible”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.