tile

/taɪl/

/taɪl/

Other forms: tiles; tiled

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."

Definitions of tile

1. noun

   a flat thin rectangular slab (as of fired clay or rubber or linoleum) used to cover surfaces
   types:

   tessera

   a small square tile of stone or glass used in making mosaics

   tessella

   a small tessera

   type of:

   slab

   block consisting of a thick piece of something
2. noun

   a thin flat slab of fired clay used for roofing
   synonyms: roofing tile

   types:

   hip tile, hipped tile

   a tile shaped so as to cover the hip of a hip roof

   pantile

   a roofing tile with a S-shape; laid so that curves overlap

   ridge tile

   a decorative tile that is bent in cross section; used to cover the ridge of a roof

   type of:

   roofing material

   building material used in constructing roofs
3. noun

   game equipment consisting of a flat thin piece marked with characters and used in board games like Mah-Jong, Scrabble, etc.
   type of:

   man, piece

   game equipment consisting of an object used in playing certain board games
4. verb

   cover with tiles
   “tile the wall and the floor of the bathroom”

   types:

   tessellate

   tile with tesserae

   type of:

   cover

   provide with a covering or cause to be covered