What does tessellated mean?
Word: Tessellated
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Tessellated means made of small flat pieces, such as tiles or stones, fitted together in a pattern with no gaps.
Synonyms: tiled
Word origin: From Latin tessellatus, from tessella, a small square stone used in floors.
How do you spell tessellated?
Syllables: tes - sel - lat - ed
Tricky part: There are two pairs of doubled letters, ss and then ll. American English drops one l (tesselated), but British spelling keeps both.
Watch out for: tesellated, tessellatted, tessellatid
Memory tip: Chant it like a skipping rhyme while you write: double s, then double l, and the floor is tiled well.
Tessellated in a sentence
Example 1: The tessellated floor of the old haveli was made of thousands of tiny coloured stones.
Example 2: In maths, we made a tessellated pattern of triangles on squared paper.
Example 3: Rain had left the tessellated pavement outside the museum shining.
Fun Fact
Roman builders laid tessellated floors from tiny cubes called tesserae, and many of these floors still survive in places such as Pompeii.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Twins
Read the sentences and choose the correct option:
1. Grandma's ___ shawl has little bunches of threads hanging along its edges. 2. The palace courtyard has a ___ floor of black and white marble squares.
a) 'tessellated' in both
b) 'tasselled' in both
c) tasselled/tessellated
d) tessellated/tasselled
Show answer
c) tasselled/tessellated. A tasselled shawl has tassels, bunches of threads, on its edge; a tessellated floor is made of fitted tiles.
Spellacadabra
Choose the option in which the following letters will fit in the given order:
e, e, a
a) tr__mp__l__ne
b) c__st__ll__ted
c) t__ss__ll__ted
d) m__t__ll__c
Show answer
c) t__ss__ll__ted. Only tessellated takes e, e and a; castellated starts with a, metallic needs e, a and i, and trampoline a, o and i.
Word Champ
Read the statements and choose the correct option:
1. Squares can be fitted into a tessellated pattern with no gaps or overlaps. 2. Regular hexagons, like the cells of a honeycomb, can form a tessellated pattern too. 3. Regular pentagons can form a tessellated pattern on their own, with no gaps.
a) both 1 and 2
b) both 2 and 3
c) only 3
d) all three
Show answer
a) both 1 and 2. The corners of regular pentagons never add up to a full 360 degrees where they meet, so they always leave gaps; statement 3 is false.
Sound Check
In which word is 'ate' pronounced differently?
a) illustrated
b) decorated
c) chocolate
d) tessellated
Show answer
c) chocolate. In chocolate, ate is a weak 'uht' sound; in tessellated, decorated and illustrated it says 'ate' as in gate.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Where would you most likely see a tessellated surface?
a) a mosaic floor in an old temple
b) a smooth glass window in a car
c) a freshly painted white wall
d) a plain cotton kurta for summer
Show answer
a) a mosaic floor in an old temple
2. Which Dutch artist is famous for pictures in which birds, fish and lizards fit together with no gaps?
a) M. C. Escher
b) Johannes Vermeer
c) Vincent van Gogh
d) Rembrandt
Show answer
a) M. C. Escher
