Basic Details
Word: Polygon
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A flat shape with three or more straight sides, such as a triangle, square or hexagon.
How to Spell Polygon
Syllables: pol - y - gon
Tricky part: The middle letter is y, not i (poligon). The ending is gon with no e, as in hexagon.
Watch out for: poligon, polygone, pollygon, polygan
Memory tip: Gon means angle, the same gon you see in pentagon, hexagon and octagon. A polygon simply has many angles.
Usage Examples
Example 1: A triangle is the polygon with the fewest sides.
Example 2: The rangoli was made of coloured polygons that fitted neatly together.
Example 3: Our maths homework was to measure every angle of a five-sided polygon.
Fun Fact
Honeybees build their combs from hexagons, six-sided polygons that fit together without leaving gaps.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
On the art room wall, Kabir painted a large poligon with twelve sides and filled each corner with a different colour.
a) corner
b) poligon
c) colour
d) painted
Show answer
b) poligon. The prefix meaning many is poly, so the second vowel must be a y.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
Every square is a ngyoolp with four equal sides and four right angles.
a) polygon
b) octagon
c) oblong
d) pentagon
Show answer
a) polygon. Pentagon and octagon need a t, and oblong needs a b; the jumble has a y instead.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the meaning of the correctly spelt word:
1. trapezeum 2. rhombuss 3. polygon 4. paralellogram
a) a flat shape with three or more straight sides
b) a four-sided shape with one pair of parallel sides
c) a four-sided shape with all sides equal
d) a four-sided shape whose opposite sides are parallel
Show answer
a) a flat shape with three or more straight sides. Parallelogram, trapezium and rhombus are all misspelt here, so polygon is the correct one.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A polygon with eight sides is called ____.
a) an octagon
b) a decagon
c) a hexagon
d) a pentagon
Show answer
a) an octagon
2. Which of these shapes is not a polygon?
a) a square
b) a circle
c) a triangle
d) a hexagon
Show answer
b) a circle
