Standard Lemma guide

phatic

adj · noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈfætɪk/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ætɪk

1

adj

Meaning 1

Pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship and whose meaning is otherwise either deemphasized or absent.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

Examples

  • 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.
  • Some dialects of a language may use a certain term or phrase in a phatic way, even if other dialects don't.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A phatic utterance.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Ancient Greek φατός (phatós, “spoken”) - from φημί (phēmí, “I say”) - + -ic. Probably formally influenced by emphatic, which predates this term.

Across languages

Translations

11 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: fàtic — pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship
  • Dutch: fatisch — pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship
  • Finnish: faattinen — pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship
  • French: phatique — pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship
  • German: phatisch — pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship
  • Hungarian: fatikus — pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship
  • Indonesian: fatis — pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship
  • Polish: fatyczny — pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship
  • Portuguese: fático — pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship
  • Spanish: fático — pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship
  • Swedish: fatisk — pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship