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tetrahedron

American  
[te-truh-hee-druhn] / ˌtɛ trəˈhi drən /

noun

  • tetrahedrons,
    plural
  • tetrahedra
    plural
  1. Geometry. a solid contained by four plane faces; a triangular pyramid.

  2. any of various objects resembling a tetrahedron in the distribution of its faces or apexes.


tetrahedron British  
/ ˌtɛtrəˈhiːdrən /

noun

  1. a solid figure having four plane faces. A regular tetrahedron has faces that are equilateral triangles See also polyhedron

  2. any object shaped like a tetrahedron

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

tetrahedron Scientific  
/ tĕt′rə-hē′drən /
  • tetrahedrons
    plural
  1. A polyhedron having four faces.


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

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:

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, 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

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

The bonds in a silica tetrahedron have some of the properties of covalent bonds and some of the properties of ionic bonds.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

Pathfinder's final stage of descent was a balloon-covered tetrahedron.

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

Its structure is highly polymeric and appears to contain three-dimensional networks of P4 tetrahedra joined by P-P single bonds.

From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019

Silica tetrahedra are bonded in three-dimensional frameworks in both the feldspars and quartz.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

A silicate mineral is one in which silicon and oxygen are present as silica tetrahedra.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

Beautiful isolated tetrahedra of transparent yellow blende are found in the snow-white crystalline dolomite of the Binnenthal in the Valais, Switzerland.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 1 "Bisharin" to "Bohea" by Various

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

They separated, lining up on each side of the leader now standing a little in advance of the twin tetrahedrons, rigid and motionless as watching guards.

From The Metal Monster by Abraham Merritt

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