A crystal form that has only half the faces of a complete crystal with the same symmetry class.
From Greek 'hemi-' (half) + 'hedron' (face), literally meaning 'half-faced.' Used since the 1800s in mineralogy to describe this specific geometric crystal form.
A hemihedron is like finding a building with only half its planned windows—the structure is still stable and beautiful, and it tells scientists about unexpected growth conditions or atomic arrangements during crystallization.
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