Platonic solid

English

A tetrahedron, one of the Platonic solids

Alternative forms

platonic solid (US)

Etymology

From Platonic + solid, in reference to the Greek philosopher Plato, who in his dialogue Timaeus theorised about a correspondence between these solids and the classical physical elements.

Noun

Platonic solid (plural Platonic solids)

(geometry) Any of five convex polyhedra with congruent regular polygonal faces, which have a high degree of symmetry and have been studied since antiquity.
- 1961, J. S. Griffith, The Theory of Transition-Metal Ions‎, page 41:
  As the names suggest, the groups and their existence are connected to the five Platonic solids. They are in fact the rotation groups of the Platonic solids.
- 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 202:
  The boat which the gods tell Utnapishtim to build is no ordinary boat but a perfect cube with seven levels; the ark resembles more a Platonic solid from the Timaeus than a seaworthy craft.
- 1993, Aharon Kantorovich, Scientific Discovery: Logic and Tinkering‎, page 160:
  The erroneous number of planets, six, gave him^{[Johannes Kepler]} the clue for his model of five Platonic solids (the five regular convex polyhedra) on which he erected the universe.
- 2015, Alexander A. Stepanov, Daniel E. Rose, From Mathematics to Generic Programming, page 44,
  In the 13th and final book, he^[Euclid] shows how to construct the five Platonic solids, and proves that they are the only regular polyhedra (bodies whose faces are congruent, regular polygons) that exist.

Hyponyms

(Any of five polyhedra): cube, dodecahedron, icosahedron, octahedron, regular hexahedron (cube), tetrahedron

Related terms

Platonic hydrocarbon

Translations

Any one of five polyhedra

Armenian: please add this translation if you can
Catalan: sòlid platònic m
Danish: platonisk legeme n
Dutch: regelmatig veelvlak n, platonisch lichaam n
Esperanto: platona solido
Estonian: please add this translation if you can
Finnish: Platonin kappale
French: please add this translation if you can
Friulian: solit platonic m
Galician: sólido platónico m
Georgian: პლატონური სხეული (ṗlaṭonuri sxeuli)
German: platonischer Körper (de) m
Hungarian: szabályos test (hu), platóni test (hu)
Italian: solido platonico
Occitan: please add this translation if you can
Polish: bryła platońska (pl) f
Portuguese: sólido platónico m (European), sólido platônico m (Brazilian)
Russian: плато́ново те́ло n (platónovo télo)
Spanish: sólido platónico m
Swedish: platonsk kropp (sv)