tetrahedron
Americannoun
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tetrahedrons,
plural
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tetrahedra
plural
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Geometry. a solid contained by four plane faces; a triangular pyramid.
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any of various objects resembling a tetrahedron in the distribution of its faces or apexes.
noun
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a solid figure having four plane faces. A regular tetrahedron has faces that are equilateral triangles See also polyhedron
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any object shaped like a tetrahedron
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tetrahedrons
plural
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of tetrahedron
1560–70; tetra- + -hedron, modeled on Late Greek tetráedron, noun use of neuter of tetráedros four-sided
Vocabulary lists containing tetrahedron
UCPS 6th Grade Roots List #5
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Organic Chemistry
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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For example, a tetrahedron, a solid three-dimensional pyramid with four triangular faces, would fill in a group of four neurons firing together.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 26, 2022
Many elements overlapped, forming a multidimensional sculpture: a triangle might jut out of a tetrahedron and meet another triangle at a point.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 26, 2022
For example, the nitrogen atom in ammonia is surrounded by three bonding pairs and a lone pair of electrons directed to the four corners of a tetrahedron.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019
The four anions surrounding this hole are arranged at the corners of a tetrahedron, so the hole is called a tetrahedral hole.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019
Once it came to rest, they deflated, and the tetrahedron unfolded to reveal the probe.
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
One part copper, two parts vanadium and four parts sulfur, the alloy features a 3D pyrochlore lattice consisting of corner-sharing tetrahedra.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 29, 2024
Silica tetrahedra are bonded in three-dimensional frameworks in both the feldspars and quartz.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
How are the silica tetrahedra structured differently in pyroxene and amphibole?
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
In mica structures, the silica tetrahedra are arranged in continuous sheets, where each tetrahedron shares three oxygen anions with adjacent tetrahedra.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
In this case the funnels radiate from a central globe, formed of two intersecting tetrahedra, with "cigars" at each point enclosing a four-atomed globe.
From Occult Chemistry Clairvoyant Observations on the Chemical Elements by A. P. Sinnett
To precisely position the sensing components, the team built DNA tetrahedrons, which are small pyramid shaped nanostructures formed entirely from DNA.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 16, 2026
Off the shores of Long Beach, where sails could catch wind, a white fleet clustered around orange buoys shaped like tetrahedrons.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2022
But Georgia-born Dylan Neuwirth’s sculptures have the weight of esoteric significance, like symbols you’d find in a medieval alchemy book: lines, circles, tetrahedrons in eerie blues and reds.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 26, 2018
“There is no me. . . . There are clusters of tetrahedrons moving around together. . . . We don’t matter.”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 29, 2017
Almost touching them with their bases were an equal number of pyramids, of tetrahedrons, as sharply angled and of similar length.
From The Metal Monster by Abraham Merritt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
