Tab vs. Tap: Know the Difference

To lightly hit something.

To lightly hit something.

Accessing a resource, like water.

To select or interact with a touchscreen.

To select or interact with a touchscreen.

A dance style involving rhythmic footwork.

A projection, flap, or short strip attached to an object to facilitate opening, handling, or identification.

To strike gently with a light blow or blows

A small, usually decorative flap or tongue on a garment.

To give a light rap with

A small auxiliary airfoil that is attached to a larger one and that helps stabilize an aircraft.

To produce with a succession of light blows

A pull-tab.

To select, as for membership in an organization; designate.

A bill or check, such as one for a meal in a restaurant.

To repair (shoe heels or toes) by applying a thin layer of leather or a substitute material.

Cost; price

To attach metal plates to (shoe toes or heels).

A tabulator on a typewriter.

To deliver a gentle, light blow or blows.

A key on a computer keyboard that, when pressed, inserts a special ASCII character used for formatting text, as in indenting a line or block of text.

To walk making light clicks.

This special ASCII character.

To tap-dance.

A tabloid.

To furnish with a spigot or tap.

To supply with a tab or tabs.

To pierce in order to draw off liquid

To press the tab on a typewriter or computer keyboard

To draw (liquid) from a vessel or container

A small flap or strip of material attached to something, for holding, manipulation, identification, opening etc.

(Medicine) To withdraw fluid from (a body cavity).

(slang) An ear.

To make a physical connection with or open outlets from

A navigational widget, resembling a physical tab, for switching between documents or sets of controls.

To wiretap (a telephone or communications channel).

(GUI) The page or form associated with such a navigational widget.

To establish an electric connection in (a power line), as to divert current secretly.

A fast march or run with full kit.

To establish access to or a connection with

A restaurant bill.

To take advantage of; make use of

Credit account, e.g., in a shop or bar; slate

To cut screw threads in (a collar, socket, or other fitting).

(by extension) The cost or bill for anything.

(Informal) To ask (a person) for money.

(computing) A space character that extends to the next aligned column, traditionally used for tabulation.

A gentle blow.

A cigarette.

The sound made by such a blow.

A form of musical notation indicating fingering rather than the pitch of notes, commonly used for stringed instruments.

A thin layer of leather or a substitute applied to a worn-down shoe heel or toe.

(Oxbridge slang) A student of Cambridge University.

A metal plate attached to the toe or heel of a shoe, as for tap-dancing.

(colloquial) A tabloid newspaper.

Tap dance.

(informal) A tablet, especially one containing illicit drugs.

(Linguistics) See flap.

(transitive) To affix with tabs; to label.

A valve and spout used to regulate delivery of a fluid at the end of a pipe.

(computing) To use the Tab key on a computer to advance the cursor or move the input focus, or on a typewriter to advance the carriage.

A plug for a bunghole; a spigot.

The flap or latchet of a shoe fastened with a string or a buckle.

Liquor drawn from a spigot.

A tag. See Tag, 2.

Liquor of a particular brew, cask, or quality.

A loop for pulling or lifting something.

(Medicine) The removal of fluid from a body cavity

A border of lace or other material, worn on the inner front edge of ladies' bonnets.

A tool for cutting an internal screw thread.

A loose pendent part of a lady's garment; esp., one of a series of pendent squares forming an edge or border.

A makeshift terminal in an electric circuit.

A small projecting piece of a file folder, file card, or similar sheet used in a filing system, on which a notation is written to permit convenient search for the folder, card, etc.

A wiretap.

A bill or check for some purchase, as in a restaurant; as, the salesman will pick up the tab.

A tapering cylindrical pin or peg used to stop the vent in a cask.

A key on a typewriter or computer keyboard which advances the carriage or curser to the next (preset) tab position; - used especially to type or print text or numbers in columns.

A device used to dispense liquids.

The bill in a restaurant;

Liquor drawn through a tap; hence, a certain kind or quality of liquor.

Sensationalist journalism

A place where liquor is drawn for drinking.

The key on an electric typewriter that causes a tabulation

(mechanics) A device used to cut an internal screw thread. (External screw threads are cut with a die.)

A short strip of material attached to or projecting from something in order to facilitate opening or identifying or handling it;

A connection made to an electrical or fluid conductor without breaking it.

A dose of medicine in the form of a small pellet

An interception of communication by authority.

To make use of a resource or information.

A device used to listen in secretly on telephone calls.

A dance style involving rhythmic footwork.

A procedure that removes fluid from a body cavity.

(finance) The situation where a borrowing government authority issues bonds over a period of time, usually at a fixed price, with volumes sold on a particular day dependent on market conditions.

A gentle or slight blow; a light rap; a pat.

(dance) tap dance

The act of touching a touch screen.

A piece of leather fastened upon the bottom of a boot or shoe in repairing or renewing the sole or heel.

(military) A signal, by drum or trumpet, for extinguishing all lights in soldiers' quarters and retiring to bed; usually given about a quarter of an hour after tattoo.

(phonetics) A consonant sound made by a single muscle contraction, such as the sound [ɾ] in the standard American English pronunciation of body.

An Indian malarial fever.

To furnish with taps.

To draw off liquid from a vessel.

To deplete, especially of a liquid via a tap; to tap out.

To exploit.

To place a listening or recording device on a telephone or wired connection.

To intercept a communication without authority.

(mechanical) To cut an internal screw thread.

To turn or flip a card or playing piece to remind players that it has already been used that turn (by analogy to "tapping," in the sense of drawing on to the point of temporary exhaustion, the resources or abilities represented by the card).

(informal) To cadge, borrow or beg.

To drain off fluid by paracentesis.

To advance someone for a post or job, or for membership of a club.

To strike lightly.

To touch one's finger, foot, or other body parts on a surface (usually) repeatedly.

To make a sharp noise.

(graphical user interface) To operate an electronic device (e.g. a mobile phone) by tapping a specific place on its (capacitive or other) touch screen.

To designate for some duty or for membership, as in 'a tap on the shoulder'.

To have sexual intercourse with.

(combat sports) To submit to an opponent by tapping one's hand repeatedly.

To force (an opponent) to submit.

To put a new sole or heel on.

To strike with a slight or gentle blow; to touch gently; to rap lightly; to pat; as, to tap one with the hand or a cane.

To put a new sole or heel on; as, to tap shoes.

To strike a gentle blow.

To pierce so as to let out, or draw off, a fluid; as, to tap a cask, a tree, a tumor, a keg of beer, etc.

Hence, to draw resources from (a reservoir) in any analogous way; as, to tap someone's knowledge of the Unix system; to tap the treasury.

To draw, or cause to flow, by piercing.

To form an internal screw in (anything) by means of a tool called a tap; as, to tap a nut, a pipe, or tubing.

To connect a listening device to (a telephone or telegraph line) secretly, for the purpose of hearing private conversations; also, to obtain or record (information) by tapping; - a technique used by law enforcement agencies investigating suspected criminals. In the United States it is illegal without a court order permitting it.

A gentle or slight blow; a light rap; a pat.

A piece of leather fastened upon the bottom of a boot or shoe in repairing or renewing the sole or heel.

A signal, by drum or trumpet, for extinguishing all lights in soldiers' quarters and retiring to bed, - usually given about a quarter of an hour after tattoo.

A hole or pipe through which liquor is drawn.

A plug or spile for stopping a hole pierced in a cask, or the like; a faucet.

Liquor drawn through a tap; hence, a certain kind or quality of liquor; as, a liquor of the same tap.

A place where liquor is drawn for drinking; a taproom; a bar.

A tool for forming an internal screw, as in a nut, consisting of a hardened steel male screw grooved longitudinally so as to have cutting edges.

The sound made by a gentle blow

A faucet for drawing water from a pipe or cask

A gentle blow

A small metal plate that attaches to the toe or heel of a shoe (as in tap dancing)

A tool for cutting female (internal) screw threads

A plug for a bunghole in a cask

The act of tapping a telephone or telegraph line to get information

A light touch or stroke

Cut a female screw thread with a tap

Draw from or dip into to get something;

Strike lightly;

Draw from; make good use of;

Tap a telephone or telegraph wire to get information;

Furnish with a tap or spout, so as to be able to draw liquid from it;

Make light, repeated taps on a surface;

Walk with a tapping sound

Dance and make rhythmic clicking sounds by means of metal plates nailed to the sole of the dance shoes;

Draw (liquor) from a tap;

Pierce in order to draw a liquid from;

Make a solicitation or entreaty for something; request urgently or persistently;

Accessing a resource, like water.

To make use of a resource or information.