tacit

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adjective

1. Not voiced or expressed: silent, undeclared, unexpressed, unsaid, unspoken, unuttered, unvoiced, wordless. See words.
2. Conveyed indirectly without words or speech: implicit, implied, inferred, understood, unsaid, unspoken, unuttered, wordless. Idioms: taken for granted. See show/hide.

adj

Definition: taken for granted
Antonyms: explicit, express

(knowledge, consent, communication) A state of a person or a relation between people that is not expressed, or one of which the subjects may even be unaware, but which can be inferred from their other capacities and activities. An agent able to construe an indefinite number of sentences of a language may be said to have tacit knowledge of the grammar of the language. Someone who voluntarily remains within the jurisdiction of a state is said by Locke to have tacitly consented to its laws. Tacit communication is the unexpressed recognition of the position of others that leads to strategies for common activity (see convention). The notion reflects the fact that people often behave ‘as if’ they have the described knowledge, or have made the consent or communication in question. But attributing further psychological reality to the concept is problematic: for example, Hume criticized Locke's political application of the notion on the grounds that the subject typically has nowhere else to which it is possible to go, and so is not so much behaving as if consenting to the authority of the state, but is behaving as if having to make the best of a possibly bad job.

This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

Implied, inferred, understood without being expressly stated.

Tacit refers to something done or made in silence, as in a tacit agreement. A tacit understanding is manifested by the fact that no contradiction or objection is made and is thus inferred from the situation and the circumstances.

IN BRIEF: Understood, implied.

Culture is the tacit agreement to let the means of subsistence disappear behind the purpose of existence. Civilization is the subordination of the latter to the former. — Karl Kraus (1874-1936), Austrian satirist.

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For a list of words related to tacit, see:

• Reflections and References

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See words rhyming with "tacit."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Tacit.

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - stiltiende, underforstået

Nederlands (Dutch)
stilzwijgend

Français (French)
adj. - (gén) tacite, (Ling) implicite

Deutsch (German)
adj. - stillschweigend

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - σιωπηρός, εξυπακουόμενος, υπονοούμενος

Italiano (Italian)
tacito

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - tácito, implícito, silencioso

Русский (Russian)
Молчаливый, подразумеваемый, безмолвный, неписаный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - tácito

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - underförstådd

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
无言的, 肃静的, 缄默的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 無言的, 肅靜的, 緘默的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 무언의, 침묵의

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 暗黙の, 無言の

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) صامت - ضمني - مفهوم ضمني‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮מובן ללא מלים, שותק, לא כתוב, מרומז, שבשתיקה‬

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