icosahedral

adjective

ico·​sa·​he·​dral (ˌ)ī-ˌkō-sə-ˈhē-drəl 

-ˌkä-

: of or having the form of an icosahedron

Examples of icosahedral in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

James Watson and Francis Crick in 1956 postulated that viruses solve this challenge by building icosahedral capsids from twenty triangular building blocks, each comprising three identical proteins. — Judith Graf, The New York Review of Books, 1 Dec. 2022

Most phages have an icosahedral head—like a die with 20 triangular faces. — Charles Schmidt, Scientific American, 1 Nov. 2019

But most icosahedral viral capsids comprise a much larger number of subunits, and placing the proteins in this way never allows for more than 60. — Quanta Magazine, 19 July 2017

However, nature’s radiolarian examples are the most stunning instances of icosahedral symmetry and well worth a careful look. — George Hart, Scientific American, 22 Mar. 2013

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1828, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for icosahedral

• anhedral
• cathedral
• dihedral
• euhedral
• subhedral
• octahedral
• polyhedral
• rhombohedral
• tetrahedral