Meaning & use

pentagon

noun·Academic

A flat geometric shape with five straight sides and five angles.

See it in a sentence

The students used a ruler to draw a pentagon with five equal sides.

The garden bed was shaped like a pentagon rather than a simple square.

A note on using this word

Capitalized as Pentagon, the word names the five-sided U.S. Department of Defense headquarters near Washington, D.C.

Words with a similar meaning

five-sided figure

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Another way to use it

2. proper noun

The headquarters building of the U.S. Department of Defense, located in Arlington, Virginia.

Military officials met at the Pentagon to discuss the new defense budget.

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