How to Use tactful in a Sentence

tactful

adjective
  • It was tactful of her not to criticize me in front of my boss.
  • He gave a tactful critique of her story.
  • Is there a tactful way to ask if my peers have a partner at home or live alone?
    — R. Eric Thomas, Mercury News, 20 Oct. 2025
  • Thus the it’s-not-you-it’s-me approach, which is tactful, if worn.
    — Miss Manners | Judith Martin, Anchorage Daily News, 18 July 2023
  • Or a tactful relative — is there one?
    — Judith Martin, Mercury News, 25 Nov. 2025
  • Instead of cash, a gift card is a more tactful way to give a monetary gift.
    — Maggie Maloney, Town & Country, 16 Oct. 2019
  • Or is there a tactful way to make my differing opinion about these drugs known?
    — Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 28 June 2023
  • Please advise me on a tactful way to address this dear woman.
    — Jeanne Phillips, Dallas Morning News, 5 Jan. 2026
  • The style featured a tactful off-the-shoulder design and a knee-length skirt that hugged her frame.
    — Karla Rodriguez, Footwear News, 3 Sep. 2019
  • As always, please be tactful when zapping back to plant investment ideas.
    — Jason Karaian, Quartz, 24 Dec. 2019
  • That includes not wanting to help people through tactful honesty.
    — R. Eric Thomas, Chicago Tribune, 30 Apr. 2026
  • So someday, perhaps, your mirror will tell you everything your friends are too tactful to say.
    — Carl Engelking, Discover Magazine, 28 July 2015
  • Is there a tactful way to ask the groom's parents to split the bill for the reception dinner at this year's smaller do?
    — The Washington Post, 31 July 2020
  • Sometimes, something comes up that requires that tactful balance of asking and telling.
    — Roxane Gay, New York Times, 26 Aug. 2022
  • So try to think of a tactful and affectionate way of asking them about repayment.
    — Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 4 Jan. 2023
  • This death does not make Beto a more tactful interviewer.
    — Keith Phipps, Vulture, 28 Aug. 2025
  • Many women calculate in this competitive way; most are too tactful to say so.
    — Allison Pearson, New York Times, 29 May 2018
  • Heather, who normally is good at playing this game and tactful while making risky moves like this, seems to have had just enough to drink to lose that tact.
    — Tom Smyth, Vulture, 5 Nov. 2025
  • Heather, who normally is good at playing this game and tactful while making risky moves like this, seems to have had just enough to drink to lose that tact.
    — Tom Smyth, Vulture, 29 Oct. 2025
  • Oettinger was tactful while shorthanded, stopping all nine Avalanche shots.
    — Dallas News, 15 Feb. 2022
  • This is your chance to help show them the future in a tactful, truthful way and support their efforts in finding a better fit down the road.
    — Julie Holunga, Forbes, 7 Sep. 2021
  • Certainly, there are more tactful ways to excite a moribund fan base than to sideswipe the previous regime.
    — Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 12 Feb. 2020
  • But even the usually tactful Pagano had a hard time stomaching the Dallas game.
    — Michael Marot, The Seattle Times, 24 Aug. 2017
  • But for anyone who still did not hear about it, Miss Manners finds your wording extremely tactful.
    — Judith Martin, Washington Post, 4 Sep. 2020
  • Cruise Three tactful strategies for dealing with fellow cruisers who've taken the party too far.
    — Scott Laird, Condé Nast Traveler, 10 Apr. 2023
  • Yet one benefit that a contribution on this scale buys its donors is silence, or perhaps tactful blindness.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2019
  • But there’s a tactful way of doing most everything, and that includes quitting in the face of adversity.
    — Daniel Libit, Sportico.com, 3 Jan. 2025
  • The tactful way to teach them requires refraining from criticizing their parents, which will be a struggle.
    — Judith Martin, Mercury News, 23 Feb. 2026
  • The man’s fashion sense was almost as impressive as his tactful, polished reporting.
    — Kristopher Fraser, Robb Report, 8 Feb. 2022
  • Or did even the gamely indulgent Russian, though too tactful to say so, balk at the image’s molten energy?
    — Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 9 May 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tactful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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