# touch

> English word · Verb · IPA /tʌt͡ʃ/ · frequency rank #1,324

## Definitions
1. Primarily physical senses.
2. Primarily physical senses.
3. Primarily physical senses.
4. Primarily physical senses.
5. Primarily physical senses.
6. Primarily physical senses.
7. Primarily physical senses.
8. Primarily physical senses.
9. Primarily physical senses.
10. Primarily physical senses.
11. Primarily physical senses.
12. Primarily physical senses.
13. Primarily physical senses.
14. Primarily physical senses.
15. Primarily physical senses.
16. Primarily physical senses.
17. Primarily physical senses.
18. Primarily non-physical senses.
19. Primarily non-physical senses.
20. Primarily non-physical senses.
21. Primarily non-physical senses.
22. Primarily non-physical senses.
23. Primarily non-physical senses.
24. Primarily non-physical senses.
25. Primarily non-physical senses.
26. Primarily non-physical senses.
27. Primarily non-physical senses.
28. Primarily non-physical senses.
29. Primarily non-physical senses.
30. To try; to prove, as with a touchstone.
31. To mark or delineate with touches; to add a slight stroke to with the pencil or brush.
32. To infect; to affect slightly.
33. To strike; to manipulate; to play on.
34. To perform, as a tune; to play.
35. To influence by impulse; to impel forcibly.

## Etymology
From Middle English touchen, tochen, from Old French tochier (“to touch”) (whence Modern French toucher; compare French doublet toquer (“to offend, bother, harass”)), from Vulgar Latin *tuccō (“to knock, strike, offend”), from Frankish *tukkōn (“to knock, strike, touch”), from Proto-Germanic *tukkōną (“to tug, grab, grasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to draw, pull, lead”). Largely displaced native Middle English rinen, from Old English hrīnan (whence Modern English rine). Doublet of tuck.
Cognates
Cognate with Old High German zochhōn, zuhhōn (“to grasp, take, seize, snatch”) (whence German zucken (“to jerk, flinch”)), German Low German tucken, tocken (“to fidget, twitch, pull up, entice, throb, knock, repeatedly tap”), Middle Dutch tocken, tucken (“to touch, entice”) (whence Dutch tokkelen (“to strum, pluck”)), Old English tucian, tūcian (“to disturb, mistreat”) (whence Modern English tuck). Compare also Old High German tokkōn, tockōn (“to abut, collide”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Albanian cek (“to touch”), Old Church Slavonic тъкнѫти (tŭknǫti). More at tuck, take.

## Easily confused with
- **TUC** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/touch-vs-tuc)
- **tour** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/touch-vs-tour)
- **tuck** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/touch-vs-tuck)
- **tout** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/touch-vs-tout)
- **truth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/touch-vs-truth)
- **tough** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/touch-vs-tough)
- **truck** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/touch-vs-truck)
- **Tours** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/touch-vs-tours)
- **truce** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/touch-vs-truce)
- **Toure** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/touch-vs-toure)
- **trough** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/touch-vs-trough)
- **touchy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/touch-vs-touchy)
- **touched** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/touch-vs-touched)
- **touches** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/touch-vs-touches)
- **ToC** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/toc-vs-touch)
- **tch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tch-vs-touch)
- **toh** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/toh-vs-touch)
- **tech** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tech-vs-touch)
- **tosh** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tosh-vs-touch)
- **tock** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tock-vs-touch)

## Common misspellings (7)
`otuch`, `tocuh`, `toucch`, `touchh`, `touhc`, `ttouch`, `tuoch`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/touch