parallelogram

American  

[par-uh-lel-uh-gram] / ˌpær əˈlɛl əˌgræm /

noun

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

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parallelogram British  

/ ˌpærəˈlɛləˌɡræm /

noun

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

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parallelogram Scientific  

/ păr′ə-lĕl′ə-grăm′ /

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

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Other Word Forms

• parallelogrammatic adjective
• parallelogrammatical adjective

Etymology

Origin of parallelogram

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

Compare meaning

How does parallelogram compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• rhombus vs. parallelogram

Example Sentences

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

From Science Daily

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

From Scientific American

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

From Scientific American

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.

From New York Times

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

From Seattle Times

Related Words

• square