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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

In silicon dioxide, each silicon atom links to four oxygen atoms by single bonds directed toward the corners of a regular tetrahedron, and SiO4 tetrahedra share oxygen atoms.

From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019

Each atom within the crystal has covalent bonds to four neighboring atoms at the corners of a regular tetrahedron.

From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019

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

There is a variation in the silicon- to-oxygen ratio that occurs because silicon-oxygen tetrahedra may exist as discrete, independent units or may share oxygen atoms at corners in a variety of ways.

From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019

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

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

In amphibole structures, the silica tetrahedra are linked in a double chain that has an oxygen-to- silicon ratio lower than that of pyroxene, and hence still fewer cations are necessary to balance the charge.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

The globe, e, is a new form, the four tetrahedra of the proto level making a single twelve-atomed one on the meta.

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

Modern tents are lighter and come in interesting shapes: tetrahedrons and domes.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 11, 2015

Now to check them soared from the ranks of the besiegers clouds of countless horned dragons, immense cylinders of clustered cubes studded with the clinging tetrahedrons.

From The Metal Monster by Abraham Merritt

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