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.
Frequently asked questions
What does it mean to contract an illness?
To catch it. The sense is drawing it towards yourself, from the Latin root "to draw".
Is it "contact details" or "contract details"?
Contact details — how to reach someone. Contract details would be the terms of an agreement.
How is contract pronounced?
CON-tract as a noun (an agreement); con-TRACT as a verb meaning to shrink or to catch.