tile

/taɪl/
noun
  1. A flat, thin piece of material (such as ceramic, stone, or vinyl) used to cover floors, walls, or roofs.
    • The kitchen backsplash is made of glass tiles.
    • A few roof tiles came loose during the storm.
    • We chose blue ceramic tiles for the bathroom floor.
  2. A small, flat piece used in games like mahjong or Scrabble.
    • She drew a blank tile in Scrabble and used it as a wildcard.
    • He arranged his letter tiles to spell 'zebra'.
    • In mahjong, each player starts with 13 tiles.
  3. A rectangular piece of data or image in a digital grid, such as on a map or in a computer game.
    • The map app loads map tiles as you zoom in.
    • The image editor lets you arrange photos in a tile layout.
    • Each tile in the game represents a different terrain type.
Synonyms
verb
  1. To cover a surface with tiles.
    • I learned how to tile a floor from online videos.
    • We plan to tile the patio next spring.
    • They hired a contractor to tile the shower walls.
  2. To arrange items (such as windows or images) in a grid pattern without overlapping.
    • You can tile your open windows to see them all at once.
    • He tiled the icons on his desktop into neat rows.
    • The software tiles the photos on the screen for easy viewing.
What does "tile" mean? | whatsthatwordmean | whatsthatwordmean