tacit means implied, but not made explicit, especially through silence. It carries an Arena rating of 1931, earned across 29 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, tacit ranks #7 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #1,314 of 17,135 for Most Malleable Words, #1,416 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #3,802 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
tacit is pronounced /ˈtæsɪt/.
Why “tacit” is a great word
An understanding conveyed not by words but by their absence, through silence, omission, or the space between actions. From the Latin *tacitus* ("silent, passed over in silence"), past participle of *tacēre* ("to be silent"), first recorded in English use c. 1600. Unlike “implicit,” which suggests something logically contained, or “explicit,” its direct, declared opposite, “tacit” is knowledge communicated by a shared glance, an agreement sealed by not objecting, or a truth upheld precisely because it is never named. It is the handshake that seals a bargain no lawyer will ever see, the glance between old friends that needs no translation, and the accumulated understanding of a marriage in which certain territories are simply never mapped—the unspoken compact that holds the world together, and the quietest form of consent.
Etymology
Borrowed from late Middle French tacite, or from Latin tacitus (“that is passed over in silence, done without words, assumed as a matter of course, silent”), from tacere (“to be silent”).
adj
- Implied, but not made explicit, especially through silence.e.g.“tacit consent”
- Not derived from formal principles of reasoning; based on induction rather than deduction.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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