tetragonal
- adjective
- /ˌtɛtrəˈɡɒnəl/
- Specialized
:
tetragonal
- The mineral sample exhibited a tetragonal crystal structure under the microscope.
Examples
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The primary differences are that, for the RNi2B2C series, there is a well-defined stoichiometry, a tetragonal crystal structure, and the possibility of studying the interaction between superconductivity and local moment magnetism.
Academic text (1998) -
All three face normals of a tetragonal cell, and that forced it to become a cubic lattice.
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Many of them distort to tetragonal forms, others distort to superstructures which have very, very large unit cells.
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The R site is a point of tetragonal symmetry, which leads to the magnetic moments being either axial or planar at low temperatures.
Academic text (1998) -
In geometry class, we learned that a tetragonal shape has four sides and right angles.
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It is important to identify the tetragonal forms of certain compounds in crystallography.
Synonyms
1
6.5
Shaped like a flat figure with four straight sides and four angles
A shape with four sides and four angles like a square or rectangle
Surface Forms
Morphology
tetragonal = tetragon (semi-transparent) = tetra + gon + al
The adjective is built from the technical noun 'tetragon' plus '-al', but the classical combining form and specialized mathematical/crystallographic sense make it less immediately accessible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The word tetragonal comes from the Greek parts tetra- meaning 'four' and -gonia, related to -gon, meaning 'angle', as in polygon and the word 'angle'. So a tetragonal shape or crystal has four angles or four sides.