tessellate

English

Alternative forms

• tesselate (chiefly U.S.)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres

Proto-Hellenic *kʷétwores

Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares)bor.

Latin tessera

Proto-Indo-European *-lós

Proto-Italic *-elos

Latin -lus

Latin tessella

Latin -ātus

Latin tessellātuslbor.

English tessellate

Learned borrowing from Latin tessellātus, 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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• Audio (Southern England):

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Adjective

tessellate

1. tessellated

Derived terms

• tessellate moray

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)
• Maori: rōpinepine

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