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octagon

/ˈɑktəgɑn/
/ˈɒktəgɒn/
IPA guide

Other forms: octagons

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."

Definitions of octagon
  1. noun
    an eight-sided polygon
    see moresee less
    type of:
    polygon, polygonal shape
    a closed plane figure bounded by straight sides
Pronunciation
US
/ˈɑktəgɑn/
UK
/ˈɒktəgɒn/
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