Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Formed of small pieces of stone, glass, or the like, generally square or four-sided in plan, and long in proportion to their breadth. See
tessera , 1. - In botany, checkered; having the colors arranged in small squares, thus resembling a tessellated pavement.
- In zoology, checkered or reticulated in a regular manner, by either the coloration or the formation of the parts of a surface.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Formed of little squares, as mosaic work; checkered.
- adjective (Bot. & Zoöl.) Marked like a checkerboard.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Covered with pieces that are similarly shaped.
- verb Simple past tense and past participle of
tessellate .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective decorated with small pieces of colored glass or stone fitted together in a mosaic
- adjective having a checkered or mottled appearance
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Such as are viviparous are hair-coated, and such as are oviparous are covered with a kind of tessellated hard substance; and the tessellated bits of this substance are, as it were, similar in regard to position to a scale.
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What emerges is a tessellated portrait, a composite of many pixelated hits, where if we had a chance, we'd naturally smooth those pieces into a story.
Pamela Haag, Ph.D.: In a Google World, Do You Have the 'Right to Be Forgotten'? Ph.D. Pamela Haag 2011
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I saw tremendous tessellated pools of anger, inexplicable rage, one that said - vengeance is my outlet.
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He remembered first learning to master the tessellated squares alone in his basement, a cobwebbed series of spider nests along the ceiling, the static sheen of a computer screen backlighting their wiry, clockwise movement.
Empty Homes, Empty Windows Peter Kispert 2011
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He vaguely remembered first learning to master the tessellated squares alone in his basement, a cobwebbed series of spider nests along the ceiling, the static sheen of a computer screen backlighting their wiry, clockwise movement.
Empty Windows, Empty Rooms Peter Kispert 2011
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What emerges is a tessellated portrait, a composite of many pixelated hits, where if we had a chance, we'd naturally smooth those pieces into a story.
Pamela Haag, Ph.D.: In a Google World, Do You Have the 'Right to Be Forgotten'? Ph.D. Pamela Haag 2011
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As we pulled up to the front entrance, two ebullient doormen outfitted in traditional white jellabas and fez hats opened the doors to reveal spotless floors of tessellated Islamic tile.
Lapping Luxury or Riding Waves? We Took the Low Road to Morocco Cynthia Rowley 2011
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You will see moments of Titian's dazzling spatial web, Claude Lorrain's wispy trees, the clouds of Tiepolo as well as flashes of Byzantine mosaics in Monet's tessellated surfaces and quivering contours.
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"Luncheon" clinched for me what "tessellated" and "rubious" had clinched for him: he was certainly a fellow inhabitant from our distant galaxy.
Beard 2010
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As usual, the front of the house seemed deserted, the tessellated hall was empty, unnaturally silent.
She Closed Her Eyes 2010
chained_bear commented on the word tessellated
"Rudyard Kipling... had found it 'a gilded and mirrored rabbi-twarren' with 'a huge hall of tessellated marble, crammed with people talking about money...'"
—Charles Leerhsen, Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008), 180
October 27, 2008