tessellate

English edit

Alternative forms edit

tesselate (chiefly U.S.)

Etymology edit

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

Pronunciation edit

IPA^(key): /ˈtɛsəleɪt/
Audio (US) (file)

Verb edit

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

(transitive) To cover with tiles or stones, as a mosaic; to tile.
(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.
(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.