tessellate

English

Alternative forms

• tesselate (chiefly U.S.)

Etymology

From Latin tessellatus, from tessella, diminutive of tessera; from Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛsəleɪt/

• Audio (US)

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Verb

tessellate (third-person singular simple present tessellates, present participle tessellating, simple past and past participle tessellated)

1. (transitive) To cover with tiles or stones, as a mosaic; to tile.
2. (intransitive, geometry) to cover a two-dimensional shape, such that multiple copies of itself placed edge to edge cover an area leaving no space between the shapes.

   Regular hexagons tessellate.

3. (transitive, geometry) To completely fill (an area) when multiple copies of one or more two-dimensional shapes are placed edge to edge.

   It is possible to tessellate the plane with equilateral triangles and regular hexagons.

Derived terms

• tessellation

Related terms

• tessella
• tessera

Translations

to cover with tiles or stones

• German: kacheln (de), pflastern (de)

to completely fill with multiple copies of a two-dimensional shape edge to edge

• German: tessellieren (de), parkettieren (de)

See also

• tessellate on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Mosaic on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Tile on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Latin

Adjective

tessellāte

1. vocative masculine singular of tessellātus