To touch means to make physical contact with something, to feel it with your hands or another part of your body. When you touch a hot stove, your fingers feel the heat. When you touch velvet fabric, you feel its softness. Your sense of touch tells you whether something is rough or smooth, cold or warm, hard or soft.

Touch is one of your five senses, and it works through nerve endings in your skin that send signals to your brain. You can touch something deliberately, like when you reach out to pet a dog, or accidentally, like when you brush against a doorframe while walking past.

The word has other meanings too. In sports, when a soccer ball goes out of bounds, it's said to be out of touch. When you touch base with someone, you check in with them briefly. If a story touches your heart, it moves you emotionally. When you add a finishing touch to a drawing, you're making a small improvement that completes it.

To say two things are touching can mean they're right next to each other, barely making contact. And when you describe something as touch and go, you mean the outcome was uncertain or risky, like a close basketball game where either team could have won until the final buzzer.