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
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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
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
Each atom within the crystal has covalent bonds to four neighboring atoms at the corners of a regular tetrahedron.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019
A molecule of methane, CH4, consists of a carbon atom surrounded by four hydrogen atoms at the corners of a tetrahedron.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019
With some quick and careful digging, I exposed the bulk of it, though the large tetrahedron and the deflated balloons still lurked below the surface.
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
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
The SiO4 tetrahedra in glassy silica have a random arrangement characteristic of supercooled liquids, and the glass has some very useful properties.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019
Silica tetrahedra are bonded in three-dimensional frameworks in both the feldspars and quartz.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
It should be noted that it is not possible to show five of the prisms in the five intersecting tetrahedra of prisms, and 30 atoms must, therefore, be added in counting.
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
“There is no me. . . . There are clusters of tetrahedrons moving around together. . . . We don’t matter.”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 29, 2017
By following the change on the model, it is seen that in the resulting figure the two chlorine atoms in ethylene chloride are situated at angles of the two tetrahedrons which are nearest each other.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 633, February 18, 1888 by Various
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