polyhedron
Americannoun
noun
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A three-dimensional geometric figure whose sides are polygons. A tetrahedron, for example, is a polyhedron having four triangular sides.
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◆ A regular polyhedron is a polyhedron whose faces are all congruent regular polygons. The regular tetrahedron (pyramid), hexahedron (cube), octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron are the five regular polyhedrons. Regular polyhedrons are a type of Archimedean solid.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of polyhedron
1560–70; < Greek polýedron, neuter of polýedros having many bases. See poly-, -hedron
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.
See Examples For:
The most popular was an image of Fuller’s Dymaxion Map, which depicts the surface of the earth as an unfolded polyhedron.
From Slate ● Dec. 26, 2022
Little do they know that the Johnson family has been searching for one polyhedron that went missing at birth.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 31, 2018
These will be installed, recreating Morris’s exhibition of painted plywood polyhedron forms at New York’s Green Gallery in 1964.
From New York Times ● Sep. 16, 2016
In 2004, Roger von Oech, who had been writing and consulting on workplace creativity since the ’70s, developed a puzzle that was a 30-sided polyhedron assembled from 30 tiny magnetic pyramids.
From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2015
A polygonal plinth, or better a polyhedron, resting upon one face is easily tipped slightly back and forth, but after slight disturbance it always returns to its first position of stable equilibrium.
From The Social Direction of Evolution An Outline of the Science of Eugenics by Kellicott, William E.
In geometry, he made key discoveries in the study of symmetries, sphere packings, lattices, polyhedra and tilings, including properties of quasi-periodic tilings as developed by Roger Penrose.
From Nature ● May 22, 2020
I should note that while most mathematicians have agreed that the term Archimedean should refer only to the 13 polyhedra Archimedes listed, the ones that satisfy the global symmetry condition, there are dissenters.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 31, 2018
His archives contain all sorts of investigations of possible packings and their properties, together with actual cardboard polyhedra, still ready to assemble:
From Scientific American ● Oct. 25, 2017
He dipped into chemistry, thinking about it in terms of graphs, like those derived from polyhedra:
From Scientific American ● Oct. 25, 2017
Penetrate the mass in idea, and you will see it composed of numberless irregular polyhedra bounded by surfaces of weak cohesion.
From Fragments of science, V. 1-2 by Tyndall, John
His office overflowed with books, journals, food wrappers and paper polyhedrons, many dangling from the ceiling.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 14, 2021
Lord Kelvin postulated that the solution consisted of filling the space with tetradecahedrons, polyhedrons with six square faces and eight hexagonal faces.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2015
Its cylindrical shape can mutate into more complex polyhedrons, just as surely as a series of pencil lines can simulate mass, depth and shadow.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 18, 2015
“Smoke,” an “extraordinary, monumental work,” according to Times art critic Christopher Knight, is built from 43 identical polyhedrons and spans 45 feet long, 33 feet wide and 22 feet tall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2015
To him or to his school seems also to have been due the construction of the regular pentagon and of the five regular polyhedrons.
From The Teaching of Geometry by Smith, David Eugene
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.
