adjective
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shaped like a rectangle
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having or relating to right angles
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mutually perpendicular
rectangular coordinates
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having a base or section shaped like a rectangle
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of rectangular
1615–25; < Medieval Latin rēctangul ( um ) rectangle + -ar 1
Explanation
In geometry, something that is rectangular had four sides and four right angles. Cereal boxes, dollar bills, and many cell phones have a rectangular shape. Anything shaped like a rectangle is rectangular. Your backyard may be rectangular, and your brother's oversized suit jacket might give his body a somewhat rectangular shape. The most important aspect of something that makes it rectangular is those four right angles, and the word itself is rooted in the Latin rectus, "right," and the Old French angle, "angle."
Vocabulary lists containing rectangular
Geometry - Introductory
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Geometry - Middle School
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Number and Operations: Fractions
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A famous example was a 1986 column on the Solomon R. Guggenheim’s proposal to expand its iconic Frank Lloyd Wright building by erecting a rectangular tower behind the smaller of the building’s two rotundas.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 7, 2026
And then there are the rectangular prisms jutting out of the floor, standing 20 feet apart from the last, with LED screens blasting clips from the movie into viewers’ subconscious.
From Salon • Apr. 20, 2026
The shelters - rectangular red-brick buildings with a solid concrete roof and no windows - could accommodate up to 100 people.
From BBC • Apr. 14, 2026
The town also has around a dozen emergency shelters, concrete rectangular boxes measuring three by six metres, close to certain public places.
From Barron's • Mar. 14, 2026
Even with rectangular pieces of roof hanging like ornaments from its needles.
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
