Phatic
//ˈfætɪk// adj, noun
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A phatic utterance.
Adjective
- 1 Pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship and whose meaning is otherwise either deemphasized or absent.
"You needn't be angry about the insincerity of shopkeepers' how-are-you greetings. Well-adjusted people understand that the question is phatic in the context and that that's usually no problem."
Example
More examples"A greeting is a type of phatic expression."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek φατός (phatós, “spoken”) - from φημί (phēmí, “I say”) - + -ic. Probably formally influenced by emphatic, which predates this term.
Related phrases
More for "phatic"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.