physical contact vs touching

physical contact and touching both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
physical contact	Yes	No	No	No
touching	Yes	Yes	No	No

As nouns, touching is a hypernym of physical contact; that is, touching is a word with a broader meaning than physical contact:

Other hypernyms of physical contact include touch.

physical contact (noun)	touching (noun)
the act of touching physically	the act of putting two things together with no space between them
	the event of something coming in contact with the body

physical contact (adjective)	touching (adjective)
	arousing affect