tile.
A regularly-shaped slab of clay or other material, affixed to cover or decorate a surface, as in a roof-tile, glazed tile, stove tile, carpet tile, etc.
Meaning & usage
A regularly-shaped slab of clay or other material, affixed to cover or decorate a surface, as in a roof-tile, glazed tile, stove tile, carpet tile, etc.
A rectangular graphic.
Each tile within the map consists of 256 × 256 pixels.
Sprites and tiles that are hidden in the prototype ROM file can be recovered.
Any of various flat cuboid playing pieces used in certain games, such as dominoes, Scrabble, or mahjong.
A stiff hat.
A Lego piece that is 1/3 the height of a brick, and is smooth without studs on top.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg-der. Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-trom Proto-Indo-European *-tlom, *-dʰlom Latin -ula Latin tēgulabor. Proto-Germanic *tigulǭ Proto-West Germanic *tigulā Old English tiġele Middle English tile English tile From Middle English tile, tyl, tigel, tiȝel, teȝele, from Old English tiġele, tieġle, tiġle (“tile, brick”), from Proto-West Germanic *tigulā (“tile, brick”), from Proto-Germanic *tigulǭ (“tile, brick”), from Latin tēgula, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- (“to cover”). Doublet of tegula. Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tichel (“tile”), Dutch tichel (“brick”), tegel (“tile”), German Ziegel (“brick, roof tile”), Luxembourgish Zill (“brick, tile”), Danish tegl (“brick”), Faroese tigul (“tile”), Icelandic tigl (“brick, tile”), Norwegian Nynorsk tegl (“brick, roof tile”), Swedish tegel (“brick, tile”), Asturian teya (“tile”), Catalan teula (“tile”), French tuile (“tile”), Galician telha, tella (“roof tile”), Italian tegola (“roof tile”), Mirandese teilha (“roof tile”), Portuguese telha (“roof tile”), Spanish teja (“roof tile”), Belarusian цэ́гла (céhla, “brick”), Czech cihla (“brick”), Polish cegła (“brick”), Serbo-Croatian cígla (“brick”), Ukrainian це́гла (céhla, “brick”), Finnish tiili (“brick, tile”).
To cover with tiles.
The handyman tiled the kitchen.
White marble tiled the bathroom.
To arrange in a regular pattern, with adjoining edges (applied to tile-like objects, graphics, windows in a computer interface).
To optimize (a loop in program code) by means of the tiling technique.
To seal a lodge against intrusions from unauthorised people.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg-der. Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-trom Proto-Indo-European *-tlom, *-dʰlom Latin -ula Latin tēgulabor. Proto-Germanic *tigulǭ Proto-West Germanic *tigulā Old English tiġele Middle English tile English tile From Middle English tile, tyl, tigel, tiȝel, teȝele, from Old English tiġele, tieġle, tiġle (“tile, brick”), from Proto-West Germanic *tigulā (“tile, brick”), from Proto-Germanic *tigulǭ (“tile, brick”), from Latin tēgula, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- (“to cover”). Doublet of tegula. Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tichel (“tile”), Dutch tichel (“brick”), tegel (“tile”), German Ziegel (“brick, roof tile”), Luxembourgish Zill (“brick, tile”), Danish tegl (“brick”), Faroese tigul (“tile”), Icelandic tigl (“brick, tile”), Norwegian Nynorsk tegl (“brick, roof tile”), Swedish tegel (“brick, tile”), Asturian teya (“tile”), Catalan teula (“tile”), French tuile (“tile”), Galician telha, tella (“roof tile”), Italian tegola (“roof tile”), Mirandese teilha (“roof tile”), Portuguese telha (“roof tile”), Spanish teja (“roof tile”), Belarusian цэ́гла (céhla, “brick”), Czech cihla (“brick”), Polish cegła (“brick”), Serbo-Croatian cígla (“brick”), Ukrainian це́гла (céhla, “brick”), Finnish tiili (“brick, tile”).
To protect from the intrusion of the uninitiated.
to tile a Masonic lodge
tile the door
Where this word comes from
See tiler (“doorkeeper at a Masonic lodge”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.