The herringbone pattern is an arrangement of rectangles used for floor tilings and road pavement.

The blocks can be rectangle

Rectangle

In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is any quadrilateral with four right angles. The term "oblong" is occasionally used to refer to a non-square rectangle...

s or parallelogram

Parallelogram

In Euclidean geometry, a parallelogram is a convex quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides. The opposite or facing sides of a parallelogram are of equal length and the opposite angles of a parallelogram are of equal measure...

s. The block edge length ratios are usually 2:1, and sometimes 3:1, but need not be even ratios.

The herringbone pattern has a symmetry

Symmetry

Symmetry generally conveys two primary meanings. The first is an imprecise sense of harmonious or aesthetically pleasing proportionality and balance; such that it reflects beauty or perfection...

 of wallpaper group pgg, as long as the blocks are not of different color (i.e., considering the borders alone).

Examples

Herringbone fabric	Egyptian mats with herringbone pattern with two different colors		Salzburg, Austria pavement	Budapest, Hungary pavement

Related tilings

As a geometric

Geometry

Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....

 tessellation

Tessellation

A tessellation or tiling of the plane is a pattern of plane figures that fills the plane with no overlaps and no gaps. One may also speak of tessellations of parts of the plane or of other surfaces. Generalizations to higher dimensions are also possible. Tessellations frequently appeared in the art...

, the herringbone pattern is topologically identical to the regular hexagonal tiling.