parallelogram

[par-uh-lel-uh-gram]

noun

1. a quadrilateral having both pairs of opposite sides parallel to each other.

parallelogram

/ ˌpærəˈlɛləˌɡræm /

noun

1. a quadrilateral whose opposite sides are parallel and equal in length See also rhombus rectangle trapezium trapezoid

parallelogram

1. A four-sided plane figure with opposite sides parallel. Rhombuses and rectangles are parallelograms.

Other Word Forms

• parallelogrammatic adjective
• parallelogrammatical adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of parallelogram¹

First recorded in 1560–70; from Late Latin parallēlogrammum, from Greek parallēlógrammon; equivalent to parallel + -o- + -gram ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of parallelogram¹

C16: via French from Late Latin, from Greek parallēlogrammon, from parallēlos _parallel + grammē line, related to graphein to write

Example Sentences

To build the lantern, the team began with a thin polymer sheet cut into a diamond-shaped parallelogram.

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During those experiments, Schwartz cut open a Möbius band and realized, “Oh, my God, it’s not the parallelogram. It’s a trapezoid.”

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They could arrange four hat tiles into a hexagonlike structure, two tiles into a pentagon and another combination of two tiles into a parallelogram.

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Two classes of shapes work, they proved: “boring parallelograms” and “surprising cyclic quadrilaterals,” cyclic meaning that all vertexes of a quadrilateral lie on a circle.

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Now, we have to get it square since at this point it’s probably a parallelogram, not a right rectangle!

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Related Words

• square