tessera
Americannoun
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one of the small pieces used in mosaic work.
-
a small square of bone, wood, or the like, used in ancient times as a token, tally, ticket, etc.
noun
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a small square tile of stone, glass, etc, used in mosaics
-
a die, tally, etc, used in classical times, made of bone or wood
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of tessera
1640–50; < Latin < Greek (Ionic) tésseres four
Vocabulary lists containing tessera
Art History
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Selection Vocabulary 2, Unit 2
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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.
See Examples For:
DAVINCI+’s probe, O’Rourke says, would get an extremely close-up and detailed view of just one tessera.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 2, 2021
You get the impression that not a tile or a tessera has been laid, not a square inch of valance put in place, without the boss's scrutinizing it.
From Time Magazine Archive
Each tessera is worth a meager year's supply of grain and oil for one person.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
I don't recognize the grain, our own tessera ration cooks down to an unattractive brown mush.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
You can see why someone like Madge, who has never been at risk of needing a tessera, can set him off.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
Back in the lab, in late June 2022, Estrada-Belli homed in on the chunks of jade, known to archaeologists as tesserae.
From National Geographic ● Jan. 26, 2024
Meanwhile EnVision would pick several tesserae to carefully study from on high.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 17, 2021
This mosaic structure, combining tesserae of research with narrative episodes, perfectly reflects the moment.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 24, 2020
You assemble those little tiles, the tesserae, from as many interviews as possible, and create the image of a biblical scene or portrait of a saint, proceeding in chronological order.
From New York Times ● Dec. 3, 2019
But they are determined, Hazelle and Gale, that the other boys, twelve-year-old Rory and ten-year-old Vick, and the baby, four-year-old Posy, will never have to sign up for tesserae.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
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.
