Meaning & use
quadrilateral
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Meanings
nouncountablemathematics
A flat shape made of four straight sides that meet at four corners.
Grammar: Countable: a quadrilateral, two quadrilaterals.
Patterns
- a quadrilateral with something
Draw a quadrilateral whose opposite sides are parallel.
A square, a rectangle and a kite are all quadrilaterals.
The surveyor sketched the field as a rough quadrilateral.
adjectivebefore a nountechnical
Having four sides, or involving four parties.
Grammar: Appears before a noun in geometry: a quadrilateral figure.
The quadrilateral garden had a fountain at its center.
The treaty created a quadrilateral alliance among the four nations.
Word forms
| plural | quadrilaterals |
|---|
Common combinations
- draw a quadrilateral
- Draw a quadrilateral and mark each angle.
- convex quadrilateral
- In a convex quadrilateral, every interior angle is less than 180 degrees.
- irregular quadrilateral
- The plot of land was an irregular quadrilateral.
- angles of a quadrilateral
- The angles of a quadrilateral add up to 360 degrees.
- area of a quadrilateral
- To find the area of a quadrilateral, divide it into two triangles.
Synonyms and how they differ
- four-sided figure
- Four-sided figure is the plain-language phrase for the same thing, used before the formal term is introduced.
- tetragon
- Tetragon is a rarer technical word for the same shape and sounds more old-fashioned.
- rectangle
- A rectangle is only one kind of quadrilateral, with four right angles, so the words are not interchangeable.
- polygon
- Polygon is the broader class of straight-sided shapes, and a quadrilateral is a polygon with exactly four sides.
Word family
- lateral adjective
- of or at the side
- bilateral adjective
- involving two sides or parties
- equilateral adjective
- having all sides equal in length
- quadrangle noun
- a four-sided open space or courtyard, or the shape itself
Commonly confused: quadrilateral or quadrangle? quadrilateral or quadruple?
quadrilateral vs quadrangle
A quadrangle is often an open courtyard with buildings on four sides, whereas a quadrilateral is the geometric shape.
quadrilateral vs quadruple
Quadruple means four times as much, and is not a shape.
Practice
Which of these shapes is NOT a quadrilateral?
Choose one answer.
A triangle has three sides. Kites, trapezoids and rhombuses all have four sides, so they are quadrilaterals.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “quadrilateral”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.