Tiling

A tiling, also known as a tessellation or honeycomb in the context of certain dimensions, is a complete filling of n-dimensional space by many copies of an n-dimensional polytope or set of polytopes.

A tiling in n dimensions can be thought of as an infinite n+1-dimensional polytope.

2D
Two-dimensional fillings of the plane by polygons are generally referred to as tilings or tessellations.

Regular tilings
A regular tiling in 2D space is vertex-transitive, edge-transitive, and face-transitive. There are only three such tilings in Euclidean 2D space.

Semiregular tilings
Like a regular tiling, a semiregular tiling has only one type of vertex, and edges that are all of equal length. However, it can have different kinds of faces. There are eight such tilings in Euclidean 2D space, one of which does not maintain the symmetries of its "parent" regular tiling.

Semiregular tilings can also be called Archimedean tilings (because they can be derived from the regular tilings in the same way that the Archimedean solids are derived from the Platonic solid s), although this name can exclude the elongated triangular tiling because it lacks the full symmetry of its "parent" regular tiling. Together, the regular and semiregular tilings make up the uniform tilings.

Duals of tilings can be constructed in the same way they are for polytopes: by "swapping" the facets and the vertices. Since the semiregular tilings are vertex-transitive, their duals are face-transitive.

k-uniform tilings
More complicated tilings called k-uniform tilings, defined as having exactly k types of vertex, are possible as well.

Hyperbolic tilings
In hyperbolic (non-Euclidean) space, the interior angles of faces around a vertex can add up to more than 360°, permitting tilings that would have been impossible otherwise.

3D
Three-dimensional fillings of space by polyhedra are usually referred to as honeycombs.

Regular honeycombs
There is only one regular honeycomb in Euclidean 3D space: the cubic honeycomb.

A polyhedron that can fill space on its own, using only more copies of itself, is regarded as space-filling. The honeycomb it forms, being made of only one type of cell, is therefore cell-transitive. The cube is the only Platonic solid that can do this; other polyhedra with this property include the hexagonal prism, truncated octahedron, and the rhombic dodecahedron. These can all fill space with only translational symmetries, while the triangular prism requires rotational symmetries to do so.

Uniform honeycombs
Including the cubic honeycomb, there are 28 "uniform" honeycombs in Euclidean 3D space: that is to say, vertex-transitive honeycombs made of uniform components. They can be separated into direct modifications of the cubic honeycomb, modifications of the alternated cubic honeycomb (itself a modification of the cubic honeycomb), prisms of uniform 2D tilings, and gyrations and elongations of existing honeycombs.

Hyperbolic honeycombs
In hyperbolic 3D space, the dihedral angles of cells around an edge can add up to more than 360°. Not only does this permit conventional polyhedra (usually Platonic solid s) to be packed more tightly around an edge than they could be in Euclidean space, but also allows for the use of unconventional polyhedra that could only exist in hyperbolic space.

Higher dimensions
A honeycomb analog in n dimensions can be referred to as an n-honeycomb, or by one of many competing unofficial names. An n-dimensional hypercube can, almost by definition, fill the space it inhabits.