tile

American  

[tahyl] / taɪl /

noun

1. a thin slab or bent piece of baked clay, sometimes painted or glazed, used for various purposes, as to form one of the units of a roof covering, floor, or revetment.

2. any of various similar slabs or pieces, as of linoleum, stone, rubber, or metal.

3. tiles collectively.

4. a flat, rectangular playing piece used in certain games, as Scrabble and mah-jongg.

5. a pottery tube or pipe used for draining land.

6. Also called hollow tile.  any of various hollow or cellular units of burnt clay or other materials, as gypsum or cinder concrete, for building walls, partitions, floors, and roofs, or for fireproofing steelwork or the like.

7. Informal. a stiff hat or high silk hat.

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verb (used with object)

tiles, present (3rd person singular) tiled, past participle, past tiling present participle

1. to cover with or as with tiles.

tile British  

/ taɪl /

noun

1. a flat thin slab of fired clay, rubber, linoleum, etc, usually square or rectangular and sometimes ornamental, used with others to cover a roof, floor, wall, etc

2. a short pipe made of earthenware, concrete, or plastic, used with others to form a drain

3. tiles collectively

4. a rectangular block used as a playing piece in mah jong and other games

5. old-fashioned a hat

6. informal on a spree, esp of drinking or debauchery

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verb

1. (tr) to cover with tiles

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• tilelike
  adjective
• tiler
  noun
• retile
  verb (used with object)

Conjugated Forms

Present

• have tiled
  perfect
• has tiled
  perfect 3rd person singular
• has been tiling
  perfect progressive 3rd person singular
• tiling
  participle
• are tiling
  progressive
• am tiling
  progressive 1st person singular
• is tiling
  progressive 3rd person singular
• have been tiling
  perfect progressive
• tiles
  singular 3rd person

Past

• had tiled
  perfect
• were tiling
  progressive plural
• was tiling
  progressive singular
• tiled
  simple
• tiled
  participle
• had been tiling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will tile
  simple
• will have tiled
  perfect
• will have been tiling
  perfect progressive
• will be tiling
  progressive

Etymology

Origin of tile

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English tīgele (cognate with German Ziegel ), from Latin tēgula

Explanation

A tile is a flat piece of material that's used to cover a roof, floor, or wall. If you're artistic, you can make a mosaic out of small, colorful glass tiles. Most tiles are made out of ceramic, metal, glass, or stone. Many baths and showers are lined with ceramic tiles, and it's also common to find tiles covering bathroom and kitchen floors. Historians have traced tiles back at least as far as the 13th century BCE, in Mesopotamia. To cover a surface in tiles is to tile. Flat, hard game pieces are also commonly known as tiles, like the Scrabble tiles you pick at the beginning of a game. The root of this word means "to cover."

Example Sentences

Hansen chose patterned terra-cotta tile from Foothill Tile & Stone Co. in Pasadena for the walls, and just outside, she used wallpaper from House of Hackney with mythical animals.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2026

“I hate to use this word, because it’s kind of ew, but mahjong is a social lubricant,” said Joanne Xu, 28, co-founder of Green Tile Social Club, a New York pop-up club.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026

“You talk to any designer or architect in L.A. and everybody’s infatuated with these houses,” says Mike Leflore, the co-founder of the Los Angeles-based company Zia Tile.

From New York Times • Mar. 28, 2024

“You should put an AirTag or Tile in anything that you can’t afford to lose,” says corporate travel skills trainer and former Los Angeles Police Department detective Kevin Coffey.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 4, 2023

Tile and debris and shards of metal scraped her arms as she desperately reached for something to grab on to.

From "Time Bomb" by Joelle Charbonneau

Related Words

• brick
• plate
• shingle