contatado

Contatado is the past participle of the verb contatar in Portuguese, meaning that contact has been established with a person or organization. It functions as an adjective and is used to describe entities that have been reached out to or have had outreach made to them. The term agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies: contatado (masculine singular), contatada (feminine singular), contatados (masculine plural), and contatadas (feminine plural).

In common usage, contatado appears in phrases such as "o cliente foi contatado" or "os candidatos contatados," indicating that outreach or communication has occurred. It is frequently employed in business contexts (customer outreach, supplier contact), recruitment and human resources (candidates contatados), market research (participantes contatados), and media or journalism to report on outreach efforts. The more common construction to describe a completed action is the passive/passive-like form "foi contatado" or "foram contatados," meaning "has been contacted" or "have been contacted."

Relation to related terms: contatar denotes the act of establishing contact; contato refers to the contact itself or the act of contacting. Using contatado focuses on the state of having received outreach rather than the act of contacting itself.

Notes on usage: while contatado can function as a stand-alone adjective, it is more typical to pair it with a noun (e.g., "cliente contatado" or "pessoa contatada") to convey precisely who has been contacted.