Contact is touch or communication — eye contact, get in contact. Contract is a binding agreement, or to become smaller, or to catch a disease — sign a contract, metal contracts in the cold, contract malaria. The extra r is the whole difference on the page.
The core difference
- contact — noun: touching, or communication; also a person you know. Physical contact, lost contact, a business contact, contact lenses. Verb: contact the office.
- contract — noun: a legal agreement. Under contract, breach of contract. Verb: to shrink, muscles contract; to catch, contract an illness; to agree formally, contracted to deliver.
The tell
Both start with con-, "together". After that contact is tact — touch, as in tactile. Contract is tract — draw or pull, as in tractor and attract. A contract draws two parties together; contact merely touches. The noun contract is stressed CON-tract; the verb meaning to shrink is con-TRACT.
In use
- contact — Avoid contact with the eyes. I lost contact with him years ago.
- contract — She signed a three-year contract. Steel contracts as it cools.
Common slips
- we signed the contact → we signed the contract
- contract details below → contact details below
Tact is touch; tract is draw.
Where the words come from
Contact is from Latin contactus, from tangere "to touch" — the same root as tangent and intact. Contract is from Latin contractus, from trahere "to draw" — a drawing together of parties, or of a muscle. Contract a disease is the same idea: you draw it to yourself.
