Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A four-dimensional hypercube.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun mathematics The four-dimensional analogue of a cube; a 4D polytype bounded by eight cubes (in the same way a cube is bounded by six squares).
  • noun science fiction Any of various fictional mechanisms that explain extradimensional, superluminal, or time travel outside the geometry of the physical universe.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the four-dimensional analogue of a cube

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek tessera, neuter pl. of tesseres, four; see tessera + aktīs, ray of light; see actino–.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From tessara- + Ancient Greek ἀκτίς ("ray").

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Examples

  • It contains four-dimensional equivalents to our familiar three-dimensional geometrical objects-a four-dimensional cube, for example, known as a tesseract, that has sixteen corners and thirty-two edges to a cube's eight and twelve.

    The New York Review of Books 2010

  • It contains four-dimensional equivalents to our familiar three-dimensional geometrical objects-a four-dimensional cube, for example, known as a tesseract, that has sixteen corners and thirty-two edges to a cube's eight and twelve.

    The New York Review of Books 2010

  • There's a theory of extradimensionality that holds that there are parallel universes as little as a mere .1 mm away from our own, but owing to the dimensions of our own universe (that is to say, it is folded over on itself like a sort of endless ribbon - think "tesseract" from "A Wrinkle in Time"), we are billions of light-years away from the next nearest universe, as the crow flies.

    saru-san Diary Entry saru-san 2004

  • Despite the fact that various advances made since 1962 in the field of physics make the scientific concept L’Engle uses to facilitate the novel’s events, called a tesseract, virtually impossible, A Wrinkle in Time remains a popular novel among young adults as well as older readers even today.

    100 Greatest Books #30-26 | Fandomania 2010

  • Thus the "four-dimensional cube" receives a name, the "tesseract," and is said to be bounded by cubes.

    The Fourth Dimension Simply Explained 1910

  • For instance, the projection of a cube may be made on to a plane, or even on to a line; similarly, a "tesseract" (the name given to the fourth-dimension figure traced by the motion of a cube) may be projected on three-dimension space, or even a plane.

    The Fourth Dimension Simply Explained 1910

  • In your spacetime version, when you reach this step, you need to grab the center of the structure and do the tesseract twist, wrench it round by about half a rad.

    365 tomorrows » Sam Clough : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2009

  • Log in to Reply tesseract (UID#4004) on October 29th, 2009 at 3: 34 pm

    how the US will split | My[confined]Space 2009

  • Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.

    Film in Development Based on A Wrinkle in Time | /Film 2010

  • Julian: Your desire for a dinghy is merely the tesseract shadow cast by the four-dimensional dinghy itself

    The Market Will Solve 2009

Comments

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  • A four-dimensional cube. Each face of a three-dimensional cube generates a cube, when moved at right angles to the existing three dimensions (i.e., into time), including the generating cube and concluding cube, for a total of eight cubes. To see a two-dimensional rendering, including fascinating moving images, click here.

    Think of it as a cube that moves through time into the future. Also used as a symbol of transcendent vision.

    March 17, 2007

  • “Speaking of ways, pet, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.”

    ― Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time

    October 15, 2016