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.
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 carbons and the four hydrogen atoms form a shape known as a tetrahedron, with four triangular faces; for this reason, methane is described as having tetrahedral geometry.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
In olivine, it takes two divalent cations to balance the –4 charge of an isolated tetrahedron.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
The probe was on the central panel of the unfolded 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
The mineral quartz is made up entirely of silica tetrahedra, and some forms of quartz are known as silica.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
In pyroxene, silica tetrahedra are linked together in a single chain, where one oxygen ion from each tetrahedron is shared with the adjacent tetrahedron, hence there are fewer oxygens in the structure.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
Atoms combine to form molecules, and molecules arrange themselves in certain definite geometric forms such as cubes, tetrahedra, hexagonal prisms and stellate forms, with properties emphasized on certain faces or ends.
From The Machinery of the Universe Mechanical Conceptions of Physical Phenomena by A. E. (Amos Emerson) Dolbear
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
Modern tents are lighter and come in interesting shapes: tetrahedrons and domes.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 11, 2015
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
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.
