Polytope
//ˈpɑliˌtoʊp// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A geometric shape (of any number of dimensions) which is fully enclosed and has flat sides, making it a member of the generalized class of shapes which includes the two-dimensional polygon and three-dimensional polyhedron; (formally) a finite region of n-dimensional space bounded by hyperplanes.
"As is well known, the theory of linear inequalities is closely related to the study of convex polytopes."
Example
More examples"As is well known, the theory of linear inequalities is closely related to the study of convex polytopes."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from German Polytop, originally coined by German mathematician Reinhold Hoppe in 1882, and first used in English by British mathematician Alicia Boole Stott in her 1910 paper Geometrical deduction of semiregular from regular polytopes and space fillings. By surface analysis, poly- (“many”) + -tope (“surface”), from Ancient Greek τόπος (tópos, “region; area”).
Related phrases
More for "polytope"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.