Having or relating to a physical body; substantial.

In various religions, including Christianity, *corporeal* existence is often called the opposite of *spiritual* existence, and corporeal existence, unlike spiritual existence, is often said to be contaminated with evil. The word is also often used by philosophers, especially when considering the nature of reality. For lawyers, *corporeal* describes physical property such as houses or cars, as opposed to something valuable but nonphysical like a good reputation.

Having a large, bulky body; obese.

The Duchess of Windsor may have said that you can never be too rich or too thin, but that's a rather modern point of view. In earlier times in Europe, being overweight was considered a sign of wealth and well-being, as demonstrated by the *corpulence* of many European kings. Still today, corpulence is thought to be superior to thinness in some of the world's cultures. But *corpulent* and *corpulence* are less often used than they once were, and we're now probably more likely to say “obese” and “obesity.”

Relating to or affecting the body.

The adjective *corporal* today usually appears in the phrase *corporal punishment,* which means “bodily punishment.” This used to include such acts as mutilation, branding, imprisonment, and even death. But today execution comes under the separate heading of “capital punishment,” which originally involved losing your head (*capit-* meaning “head”). Milder forms of corporal punishment are used by American parents, and were once common in schools as well. *Corporal* is occasionally used in other ways; in the traditional church, the “corporal works of mercy” include seven helpful acts such as sheltering the homeless and burying the dead. *Corporal* as a military rank actually comes from *caporal*—which has the same root as *capital.*

(1) To blend or combine into something already existing to form one whole. (2) To form or form into a corporation.

From its roots, *incorporate* means basically “add into a body” or “form into a body.” So, for example, a chef might decide to incorporate a couple of new ingredients into an old recipe, and then might incorporate that new item into the restaurant's dinner menu. The restaurant itself was probably *incorporated* at the beginning, and so is now a *corporation*—that is, a “body” that's legally allowed to act like a single person in certain ways, even if it may have many individual employees. As you can see, the two meanings turn out to be fairly different.

The ability to deal with others without offending them.

This word came to English directly from French (a Latin-based language), where it can also mean simply “sense of touch.” Dealing with difficult situations involving other people can require the kind of extreme sensitivity that our fingertips possess. As Lincoln once said, “Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves,” which doesn't usually come naturally. Someone *tactful* can soothe the feelings of the most difficult people; a *tactless* person will generally make a bad situation worse.

(1) Able to be perceived by touching. (2) Relating to the sense of touch.

If you set your cell phone to vibrate rather than ring, you're taking the tactile option. Educators believe that some students are naturally “tactile learners,” much better at “hands-on” learning than at tasks that involve patient listening and reading. Many longtime readers resist using e-books, saying they miss the tactile sensations of leafing through an actual book. And the blind, using the raised dots of the braille alphabet, rely entirely on their tactile sense to read; some can actually read as fast as the average person can read out loud.

Touching lightly; incidental.

In geometry, a *tangent* is a straight line that touches a curve at a single point. So we say that someone who starts talking about one thing and gets sidetracked has gone off on a tangent. The new subject is tangential to the first subject—it touches it and moves off in a different direction.

Able to be perceived, especially by touch; physical, substantial.

Something that's literally tangible can be touched. A rock is tangible, and so is a broken window; if the rock is lying next to the window, it could be tangible evidence of vandalism. When we say that the tension in a room is tangible, we mean we feel it so strongly that it seems almost physical. But if we're being literal, tension, like hope, happiness, and hunger, is literally *intangible*—it may be real, but it can't be touched. When lawyers talk about an intangible asset, they might mean something like a company's good reputation—very valuable, but not quite touchable.