hexagon
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of hexagon
From the Greek word hexágōnon, dating back to 1560–70. See hexa-, -gon
Explanation
The name of a shape depends on how many sides it has. A hexagon is a polygon that has six sides. Remember the "x" in "six" and "hex," and you'll be fine. Many of our words in science and math hearken back to the Greek, and hexagon is no exception. The idea of a six-sided figure comes from the Greek hexágōnon, with gonia meaning "angle," which makes sense, as a hexagon not only has six sides, but six angles, or vertices. There are various types of hexagons, including the "regular hexagon" (where all the sides and angles are equal to each other) and the "irregular hexagon" (which has unequal angles and sides).
Vocabulary lists containing hexagon
Geometry - Introductory
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The ACT Math Test: Geometry, List 2
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Geometry - Middle School
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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.
I’ll just add more shapes — I think it’s really like a love hexagon because you have to bring Ms. Casey into the picture too, right?
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 21, 2025
Stripped of their brown paint and polished, each fragment will weigh 18 grams, or just over half an ounce, and be fashioned into a hexagon — the shape of France.
From New York Times • Feb. 8, 2024
Yet for some species, the hexagon comes with a nasty catch: It isn't one-size-fits-all.
From Salon • Jul. 27, 2023
In 1975 he conjectured that the optimal packing of n circles is an arrangement in a triangular lattice that forms the shape of a hexagon that is as regular as possible.
From Scientific American • Jun. 6, 2023
Rooms which should contain other passengers in stasis, instead hold walls of hexagon bed tubes puzzled together like a honeycomb.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
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.
