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Glite Dictionary
to tessellate

to tessellate

8.7
To cover a surface with repeated shapes that fit without gaps or overlaps
  • verb
  • /ˈtɛsəˌleɪt/
translation icon : teselar
  • The artist used square tiles to tessellate the bathroom floor with no gaps between them.
  • tessellated gold

Examples

  • To create a beautiful wall design, you can tessellate colorful geometric shapes that fit perfectly together.

  • Five fold patterns, however, are more challenging to tessellate because pentagons don't neatly fill a surface.

  • In mathematics, certain shapes can tessellate, allowing them to cover a plane without any overlaps.

Synonyms

to tile
vsto tessellate
17 3.0

To cover a surface with flat hard pieces of material

fills a surface with repeating shapes that fit without gaps or overlaps
to mosaic
vsto tessellate
5.1

To cover a surface with small colored pieces to form a picture

uses repeating shapes that join perfectly to cover space without gaps

Surface Forms

tessellate infinitive
tessellated past
tessellated past participle
tessellating present participle
tessellates third person singular

Morphology

tessellate = tessell + ate

The root 'tessell' is a Latin-derived combining form (not a productive standalone English base), so learners cannot reliably infer the meaning from familiar English morphemes.

Etymology

Tessellate comes from the Latin word tessella, meaning 'small tile' or 'little square'. So to tessellate is to cover a surface with repeated shapes that fit together with no gaps, like laying tiles on a floor or the hexagons in a honeycomb.