An ornamental design with six lobes or leaves radiating from a center point, commonly used in medieval and Gothic architecture.
From 'hexa-' (six) + 'foil' (from Latin 'folium' meaning leaf). The term describes a specific architectural motif that became prominent in Gothic design during the 12th-14th centuries.
Hexafoils appear in famous cathedrals like Chartres and Notre-Dame as decorative window tracery, and architects used them because six-pointed patterns naturally fit into circular spaces and create satisfying mathematical harmony that medieval builders understood intuitively.
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