tile
Americannoun
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tiles
plural
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a thin slab or bent piece of baked clay, sometimes painted or glazed, used for various purposes, as to form one of the units of a roof covering, floor, or revetment.
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any of various similar slabs or pieces, as of linoleum, stone, rubber, or metal.
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tiles collectively.
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a flat, rectangular playing piece used in certain games, as Scrabble and mah-jongg.
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a pottery tube or pipe used for draining land.
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Also called hollow tile. any of various hollow or cellular units of burnt clay or other materials, as gypsum or cinder concrete, for building walls, partitions, floors, and roofs, or for fireproofing steelwork or the like.
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Informal. a stiff hat or high silk hat.
verb (used with object)
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tiles,
present (3rd person singular)
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tiled,
past participle, past
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tiling
present participle
noun
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a flat thin slab of fired clay, rubber, linoleum, etc, usually square or rectangular and sometimes ornamental, used with others to cover a roof, floor, wall, etc
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a short pipe made of earthenware, concrete, or plastic, used with others to form a drain
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tiles collectively
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a rectangular block used as a playing piece in mah jong and other games
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old-fashioned a hat
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informal on a spree, esp of drinking or debauchery
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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tilesimple
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tilessimple
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have tiledperfect
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has tiledperfect
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am tilingprogressive
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are tilingprogressive
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is tilingprogressive
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have been tilingperfect progressive
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has been tilingperfect progressive
Past
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tiledsimple
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had tiledperfect
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was tilingprogressive
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were tilingprogressive
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had been tilingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of tile
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English tīgele (cognate with German Ziegel ), from Latin tēgula
Explanation
A tile is a flat piece of material that's used to cover a roof, floor, or wall. If you're artistic, you can make a mosaic out of small, colorful glass tiles. Most tiles are made out of ceramic, metal, glass, or stone. Many baths and showers are lined with ceramic tiles, and it's also common to find tiles covering bathroom and kitchen floors. Historians have traced tiles back at least as far as the 13th century BCE, in Mesopotamia. To cover a surface in tiles is to tile. Flat, hard game pieces are also commonly known as tiles, like the Scrabble tiles you pick at the beginning of a game. The root of this word means "to cover."
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:
Each tile is the same size, but for most of the tables, the abstraction of the design means collectors can choose how they are arranged.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
Roebuck was still lying on the tile floor, his stomach burning.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
"What is especially fascinating about the hat tile is that, although the resulting pattern appears irregular at first glance, it is actually constructed from the honeycomb lattice," says lead author Yuto Moritake.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026
Inside, Portuguese tile, raffia and colorful linens fill airy living spaces that open onto private pools.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
She heard the shards of tile, torn branches, and slivers of wood pounding against the stone courtyard like the beating of drums, but nothing touched her.
From "When the Sea Turned to Silver" by Grace Lin
Coloured tiles are even less efficient, comments Ben Graves, co-founder of UK solar company Sunsave.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
The individual ceramic tiles create a complete composition but are also subject to the vicissitudes of the kiln.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
Excellent, if your tastes trend toward carpet tiles, hospital lighting, and the trapped-animal sensation of entering a room with no exit.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
There is the intermittent purr of generators, dogs barking, and, from time to time, the dry clack of domino tiles echoing in the street.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
It looked very much like what I’d seen of the rest of the courthouse, circa 1950 or so, with pecky linoleum tiles and paneling that was yellowed and sticky-looking with honey-colored varnish.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
It’s backed by a mission-style silhouette tiled with an urn overflowing with foliage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
As one of the site’s Nation Builders—first-person interpreters portraying figures of Revolutionary America—Smith regularly fields autograph requests and accepts gifts: a custom mug tiled with his own face, a vinyl album of original Jefferson ballads.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
This country is tiled with adrift twentysomething males, beset with incoherent politics, whose opinion about any issue is generated in the 10 seconds after they’ve been asked the question.
From Slate ● Apr. 13, 2026
Like many visitors, Billy first came to Kelvingrove with this family and it is memories of those visits, including sliding around the tiled floors with his sister Flo, in their socks, that he recalls.
From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2026
The force of the Death Eaters’ spells shattered the tiled wall where Ron’s head had just been, as Harry, still invisible, yelled, “Stupefy!”
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
Yet after the announcement, a dozen tellers continued to serve the Farsi-speaking customers who trickled in to do business in the bright space decorated with Persian-themed mural work and tiling.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Meanwhile the tiling for the kitchen has, Lorenze revealed, been specially created for the couple featuring designs that reflect their passions, interests, and romantic milestones.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 8, 2026
The company, which incorporated in 2020 and is based in Caldwell, appears to provide contractor services for tiling work.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2026
Well-known visual examples of this kind of tiling can be found in the artwork of M.C.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 7, 2026
He explained bow plovers indulged in aerobatics, and would actually do such stunts as spins, stall turns and even rolls for the mere grace of the tiling.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
