octagon

American  

[ok-tuh-gon, -guhn] / ˈɒk təˌgɒn, -gən /

noun

• octagons
  plural

1. a polygon having eight angles and eight sides.

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octagon British  

/ ˈɒktəɡən /

noun

1. a polygon having eight sides

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octagon Scientific  

/ ŏk′tə-gŏn′ /

1. A polygon having eight sides.

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octagon Cultural  

1. A polygon having eight sides.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• octagons
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of octagon

1650–60; < Latin octagōnon < Greek oktágōnon, noun use of neuter of oktágōnos octangular; see octa-, -gon

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Explanation

An octagon is a shape with eight sides. Picture a stop sign, and you'll get the idea. If your house is a strange, roundish shape with eight walls, it's an octagon, and if your medal for being the most improved bowler in your league has a shape with eight equal sides, it's also an octagon. You'll come across the word most often in geometry class, where you'll also learn that an octagon's eight interior angles always add up to 1080 degrees. The Greek root is oktagononos, "eight-angled," from okto, "eight," and gonia, "angle."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

octagon octagons

In the next breath, he mentions his Saturn return, the astrological transit that often triggers a reevaluation of one’s pursuits and place in the cosmic octagon.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026

There's also the question over whether McGregor will even return to the octagon, so waiting for the Irishman would come with huge risk.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

And so, as these fighters walked stone-faced to the octagon, we bore witness to the revolting spectacle of the troops saluting fighters.

From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2026

There is a 600-ton octagon still sitting on the South Lawn.

From Salon ● Jun. 15, 2026

It was a perfect octagon, the eight sides joined at the corners by rippling seams of silver.

From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia

But borders are borders, and once Strickland has been ejected, it doesn’t take long for everyone to get back to Fan Festing at the various octagons scattered around the Ellipse.

From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2026

It's like jumping into a kaleidoscope, with constantly shifting triangles, pentagons and octagons.

From BBC ● May 25, 2025

Some, overcome by the beauty, have wept upon seeing the inside of the dome, with its ascending rings of interlocking diamonds and octagons that Jay cut by hand from poplar wood.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 9, 2023

It didn’t cover steering, brakes, red octagons at the end of the street, what a yellow light means.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 8, 2021

The heads of the two windows, one on either side of the door, are half-irregular octagons with convex sides.

From Portuguese Architecture by Walter Crum Watson

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