tessera
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈtɛsərə/
Examples
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The puppeteer's surprised smile stayed with me as a kind of talisman, a tessera of recognition.
Academic text (1997) -
Ovda's interior is tessera terrain (see box on page 134).
Academic text (1991) -
The oldest terrain identified to date is tessera, a complicated series of highly fractured terrains (see figure on p. 25).
Academic text (1995) -
We might just note that the term tessera, in particular, was applied to a number of terrains that looked alike in the low-resolution Venera data, but which are proving to be different at high resolution.
Academic text (1991) -
Tessera, tesserae—polygonally patterned ground: goddesses of fate or fortune.
Academic text (1991) -
The tessera must be the oldest because the surrounding terrains bury parts of it, never vice versa, but its exact age is uncertain because it is tough to identify impact craters in these knafied regions.
Academic text (1995) -
The artist carefully arranged each tessera to create a stunning mosaic pattern.
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In the ancient building, the floor was decorated with colorful tesserae made of glass and stone.
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Several tessera were missing from the mural, leaving gaps in the beautiful design.
Synonyms
A small piece of stone, tile, or glass used to make a mosaic
How Big
Surface Forms
Etymology
Tessera comes from an old Latin and Greek word that meant a 'square' or small 'tile'. You can see the same root in tessellate, which means to cover an area with small tiles, so a tessera is one little stone, tile, or piece of glass used to make a mosaic.