Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

tessera

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.49 in modern English

Syllables: tessera
IPA

7

Scrabble Score

7

Letters

1

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A small square piece of stone, wood, ivory or glass used for making a mosaic.

noun

A complex-ridged surface feature seen on plateau highlands of Venus and perhaps on Triton.

noun

An ancient Roman die.

Example Sentences

"The map was laid using tesserae, small cube-shaped tiles of limestone, marble, or colored stone."
"During the reign of Augustus, Rome imported marble from Egypt and Africa, and games of tali and tessera were played."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin tessera (“a cube, a die with numbers on all six sides”), from Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares, “four”).

Origin

Source language: Latin

Word Breakdown

Root: tessera

Inflected Forms

tesserae (plural)

Derived Forms

contesseration tessellate tesseract tesseral

Questions

What does tessera mean?: A small square piece of stone, wood, ivory or glass used for making a mosaic.
Where does tessera come from?: It is traced to Latin.

How to pronounce tessera

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “tessera”.
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