ENGLISH
REFERENCE

tacit

adj.
C1 Advanced US //ˈtæsɪt// UK //tˈæsɪt// tac·it

adj. understood without being said or written down. You use this to describe an agreement or a rule that people know exists even if they never talk about it.

adj. understood or implied without being explicitly stated. Often describes a form of agreement, knowledge, or social convention that exists by mutual understanding rather than by formal declaration.


SIMPLE

There is a tacit agreement that we will not talk about politics.

CONTEXTUAL

The two countries share a tacit understanding that they will not interfere in each other's internal affairs.

COMPLEX

The board of directors reached a tacit consensus on the new policy, even though no formal vote was ever recorded in the minutes.

Synonyms
Origin

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”).

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