From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Contact \Con"tact\ (k[o^]n"t[a^]kt), noun [L. contactus, fr. contingere, -tactum, to touch on all sides. See {Contingent}.]
1. A close union or junction of bodies; a touching or meeting.
2. (Geom.) The property of two curves, or surfaces, which meet, and at the point of meeting have a common direction.
3. (Mining) The plane between two adjacent bodies of dissimilar rock. --Raymond.
4. (Electricity) A metallic conducting component of an electrical device connected to a circuit within and so situated that it may form a conducting pathway to an external power source or device when contacted by another conductor; as, the contact on a standard light bulb has the shape of a screw for easy insertion into the socket. [PJC]
5. A person who serves to commmunicate information to or from one group to another, whether formally or informally; as, a good Washington reporter has contacts in the White House. [PJC]
{Contact level}, a delicate level so pivoted as to tilt when two parts of a measuring apparatus come into contact with each other; -- used in precise determinations of lengths and in the accurate graduation of instruments.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: close interaction; "they kept in daily contact"; "they claimed that they had been in contact with extraterrestrial beings"
2: the state or condition of touching or of being in immediate proximity; "litmus paper turns red on contact with an acid"
3: the act of touching physically; "her fingers came in contact with the light switch"
4: the physical coming together of two or more things; "contact with the pier scraped paint from the hull" [syn: {impinging}, {striking}]
5: a person who is in a position to give you special assistance; "he used his business contacts to get an introduction to the governor" [syn: {middleman}]
6: a channel for communication between groups; "he provided a liaison with the guerrillas" [syn: {liaison}, {link}, {inter-group communication}]
7: (electronics) a junction where things (as two electrical conductors) touch or are in physical contact; "they forget to solder the contacts" [syn: {tangency}]
8: a communicative interaction; "the pilot made contact with the base"; "he got in touch with his colleagues" [syn: {touch}]
9: a thin curved glass or plastic lens designed to fit over the cornea in order to correct vision or to deliver medication [syn: {contact lens}]
verb
1: be in or establish communication with; "Our advertisements reach millions"; "He never contacted his children after he emigrated to Australia" [syn: {reach}, {get through}, {get hold of}]
2: be in direct physical contact with; make contact; "The two buildings touch"; "Their hands touched"; "The wire must not contact the metal cover"; "The surfaces contact at this point" [syn: {touch}, {adjoin}, {meet}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
153 Moby Thesaurus words for "contact": ESP, accord, acquaintance, answer, approach, arbitrator, assail the ear, association, attouchement, be heard, breath, broker, brush, brush by, caress, caress the ear, closeness, come in contact, commerce, communicate with, communication, communion, companionship, concord, congress, conjunction, connection, contiguity, contingence, conversation, converse, correspond, correspond with, correspondence, cutaneous sense, dealing, dealings, empathy, establish connection, exchange, feel, feeling, fellowship, fingertip caress, flick, friend, gain a hearing, get, get across, get hold of, get through to, get to, glance, go-between, graze, hand-mindedness, harmony, hit, impinge, impingement, impingence, in, information, interaction, interagent, interchange, intercommunication, intercommunion, intercourse, intermediary, intermediate, intermedium, internuncio, interplay, interpleader, interrogate, junction, kiss, lambency, lap, lick, light touch, linguistic intercourse, maintain connection, make advances, make an impression, make contact with, make oneself heard, make overtures, make up to, mediator, medium, message, middleman, nearness, negotiant, negotiator, nudge, oneness, osculate, osculation, phone, propinquity, proximity, question, raise, rapport, reach, reach the ear, register, relate to, relation, reply, reply to, respond to, response, ring up, rub, scrape, sense of touch, shave, sideswipe, skim, skirt, social intercourse, speak to, speak with, speaking, speech, speech circuit, speech situation, squeak by, stroke, sympathy, tactile sense, taction, talking, tangency, tap, telepathy, telephone, tentative contact, tentative poke, touch, touching, traffic, truck, two-way communication, understanding, union, unity, whisper, write to
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