Antiprism

polyhedron with two parallel copies of a polygon, connected by an alternating band of triangles

In geometry, an antiprism is a polyhedron (a 3D shape). It is made of two copies of a regular polygon. These polygons are connected using an alternating band of triangles. To connect a pair of n-sided polygons, 2n triangles are needed. Antiprisms are like prisms, but prisms use parallelograms for the bands at the side.

Antiprism with a hexagon
Octahedron

A right antiprism uses a right angle to connect the base polygons to the band of triangles. A uniform antiprism uses equilateral triangles as base surfaces.

The regular octahedron is a special kind of antiprism, since all of its faces are equilateral triangles. There are triangles on opposite sides of the octahedron. These triangles are connected by the rest of the triangles, which form an alternating band.