dodecahedron

English

WOTD – 14 December 2007

A dodecahedron

Etymology

From Ancient Greek δωδεκάεδρον (dōdekáedron). Equivalent to dodeca- +‎ -hedron.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌdəʊ.dɛk.əˈhiː.dɹən/, /ˌdəʊ.dɪk.əˈhiː.dɹən/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌdoʊ.dɛk.əˈhiː.dɹən/, /doʊˌdɛk.əˈhiː.dɹən/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Audio (Australia):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: do‧dec‧a‧he‧dron

Noun

dodecahedron (plural dodecahedra or dodecahedrons)

1. (geometry) A polyhedron with twelve faces; the regular dodecahedron has regular pentagons as faces and is one of the Platonic solids.

   Synonym: duodecahedron

   • 1707, Thomas Blount, Glossographia Anglicana Nova: Or, A Dictionary, Interpreting Such Hard Words, D. Brown, heading DO–DO,

     Dodecahedron, (Gr.) in Geometry, is a solid Figure of 12 Sides or Faces that are regular Pentagons, it is one of the Platonick or Regular Bodies.

   • 2015 March 17, Diana Lutz, quoting Ivan Horozov, “Researcher builds four-dimensional figure in his office”, in Phys.org‎^[1], archived from the original on 31 August 2025:

     It took me two years, but by the time I was 12 I could imagine the fifth four-dimensional polytope, which is made up of 120 dodecahedrons.

   • 2024 May 9, Samantha Tipper, “Why Did Ancient Romans Make this Baffling Metal Dodecahedron?”, in Scientific American‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: Springer Nature America, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 9 May 2024:

     There is no uniformity in the size or shape of the dodecahedra found so far, nor in their metal composition or even in the level of craftsmanship. If they were important objects, we would expect to also discover contextual evidence in the archaeological record, such as depictions in paintings or mosaics.

Derived terms

• dodecadodecahedron
• dodecahedral
• dodecahedrane
• dodecahedronic
• dyakis dodecahedron
• great dodecahedron
• hyperbolic dodecahedron
• hyperdodecahedron
• icosidodecahedron
• pentadodecahedron
• pentakis dodecahedron
• rhombic dodecahedron
• rhombicosidodecahedron
• rhombidodecahedron
• Roman dodecahedron
• snub dodecahedron
• truncated dodecahedron

Related terms

• icosahedron
• octahedron
• polyhedron
• tetrahedron

Translations

a polyhedron with 12 faces

• Armenian: տասներկուանիստ (tasnerkuanist)
• Azerbaijani: dodekaedr
• Catalan: dodecàedre (ca), dodecaedre (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 正十二面體 / 正十二面体 (zh) (zhèngshí'èr miàntǐ)

• Czech: dvanáctistěn (cs) m, dodekaedr (cs) m
• Danish: dodekaeder n
• Dutch: twaalfvlak (nl) n, dodecaëder (nl) m,
• Esperanto: dekduedro
• Estonian: korrapärane dodekaeeder
• Finnish: dodekaedri (fi), kaksitoistatahokas
• French: dodécaèdre (fr) m
• Galician: dodecaedro (gl) m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Dodekaeder (de) n or m, Zwölfflächner m, 12-Flächner m
• Haitian Creole: dodekayèd
• Hebrew: תְּרֵיסָרוֹן (he) (t'resarón), דּוֹדֶקָהֶדְרוֹן (dodekahédron)
• Hungarian: dodekaéder (hu)
• Icelandic: tólfflötungur m
• Ido: dodekaedro (io)
• Indonesian: dodekahedron (id), bangun bersisi dua belas
• Irish: dóideacaihéadrán m
• Italian: dodecaedro (it) m
• Japanese: 正十二面体 (せいじゅうにめんたい, seijūni mentai), 十二面体 (jūnimentai)
• Korean: 정십이면체 (jeongsibimyeonche)
• Latvian: dodekaedrs m
• Lithuanian: dodekaedras m
• Malay: segi dua puluh, dodekahedron
• Norwegian: dodekaeder (no) n
• Occitan: dodécaèdre m
• Polish: dwunastościan foremny m
• Portuguese: dodecaedro (pt) m
• Quechua: chunka iskayniyuq uya
• Russian: додека́эдр (ru) m (dodekáedr), двенадцатигранник (ru) m (dvenadcatigrannik)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: до̀декае̄дар m,

  Latin: dòdekaēdar (sh) m

• Spanish: dodecaedro (es) m
• Swedish: dodekaeder (sv) c
• Tamil: பன்னிரண்டுமுக ஐங்கோணகம் (paṉṉiraṇṭumuka aiṅkōṇakam)
• Thai: ทรงสิบสองหน้า (song sìp sŏng nâa)
• Turkish: dodekahedron
• Ukrainian: додека́едр m (dodekáedr), дванадцятигра́нник m (dvanadcjatyhránnyk)
• Vietnamese: khối mười hai mặt
• Welsh: dodecahedron

See also

• cube
• Platonic solid