Writers often need to use words to describe one of the 5 senses - touch, hearing, sight, taste, and smell. The sense of touch or feeling, can be divided into adjectives (which can elicit or are capable of eliciting the sensation), nouns (which describe the sensations of feeling or touching), and verbs (which describe the act or action of feeling or touching).
Touch
Touch can be defined as bringing the body into contact with something, perceiving through the tactile sense, striking or pushing lightly (with hand, foot, implement), or causing to briefly in contact with something.
The Thesaurus lists touch as the following synonyms in nouns, verbs and adjectives:
Nouns
1. tactile sense, contact, feel, feeling, light touch, whisper, breath, kiss, caress, fondling, loving touch, lick, lap, brush, graze, crazing, glance, stroke, rub, tap, flick, tentative poke
2. fingering, palpation, handling, manipulation, petting, rubbing, friction, fondling, pressure
3. touchableness, tangibility, palpability,
4. feeler, tactile organ, tactile cell, tactile process, antenna, tactile hair, cat whisker,
5. finger, digit, forefinger, index finger, ring finger, middle finger, little finger, pinkie, thumb
Verbs (add the word "to" in front of these words)
6. feel, palpate, finger, run the fingers over, handle, palm, manipulate, wield, ply, twiddle, poke at, prod, tap, flick
7. touch lightly, touch upon, kiss, brush, sweep, graze, brush, glance, scrape, skim
8. stroke, pet, caress, fondle, nuzzle, nose, rub noses, rub, rub against, massage, knead
9. lick, lap, tongue, mouth
Adjectives
10. tactile, tactual
11. touchable, palpable, tangible, tactile
12. lightly touch, playing lightly over, barely touching
Feeling or the Sensation of Touch
Feeling or the sensation of touch can be defined as being in contact with something, feeling something with a body part, laying hands or fingers on a person to cure them of a disease, one of the physical senses for which the skin contains the chief end organs and which the characterizes the sensation of touch and temperature, or a universal bodily awareness or sensation.
The Thesaurus lists the following synonyms as nouns, verbs, and adjectives:
Nouns
1. tingle, thrill, buzz, prickle, prickles, pins and needles, sting, stinging, paresthesia
2. tickle, titillation, pleasant stimulation, ticklishness
3. itch, itching, pruritus
4. creeps, cold creeps, shivers, cold shivers, creeping of the flesh, gooseflesh, goose bumps, goose pimples
verbs (add the word "to" in front of these words)
5. tingle, thrill, itch, scratch, prickle, prick, sting
6. tickle, titillate
7. feel creepy, feel funny, creep, crawl, have the creeps, have the cold creeps, have the heebie-jeebies, give one the creeps, give one the willies
adj.
8. tingly, tingling, prickly, prickling
9. ticklish, tickling, tickly, titillative
10. itchy, itching,
11. creepy, crawly, creepy-crawly
Reviewing the lists of feel/touch synonyms helps to break down the sensation into smaller more descriptive categories. It also helps to find just the right word when it comes time to use the sense of touching or feeling in a piece of writing.
Resources
Roget’s Thesaurus. Fifth Edition. Edited by Robert L. Chapman. New York , New York
Merriam Webster Dictionary
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