tactful
adj/ˈtæktfəl/
Etymology From tact + -ful.
1
Possessing tact; able to deal with people in a sensitive manner.
- His exhortations to his assistants to waste no time in getting on with the job, and to be tactful and courteous with those outside the railway service with whom they had to deal, are as apposite today as they were a century ago.1958 August 23, “More Light on Brunel”, in Railway Magazine, page 516:
- I once found myself listening to a gay man who was saying wistfully, "I wish there was someplace you could go, maybe a club, where only masculine men would be allowed in." […] Ever tactful, I did not point out to him that if such a place existed, he probably would not be allowed into it.1984 December 29, Duncan Mitchel, “The Cult of Gay Machismo”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 25, page 9:
- Derived terms
- tactfully, tactfulness, untactful