Different types of shapes and their names (with pictures)

Triangle, square, circle – these are the most general shapes and their names. Basically, different types of shapes exist all around us. Find out if you knew all the types and names.

Children study shapes from an early age. At school, they transform into geometry and students explore various measurements and solve math tasks. We come across forms and shapes when building and decorating a house, in manufacturing clothes, cooking, driving, and many other activities.

You don’t have to think about different shapes and their names all the time. But knowing the differences between them can be helpful in life.

Types of shapes and their names

All geometric shapes have specific parameters which differentiate them from one another. Thus, you might look at a triangle, but depending on the ratio of its sides, you get various types of one object.

Interestingly enough, the shapes can be two- or three-dimensional. Let’s look at specific cases.

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Triangles

The object consists of three sides. Depending on the sides, you get:

• Equilateral triangle – all sides and angles are equal.
• Isosceles triangle – two sides equal.
• Scalene triangle – all three sides are different.

The angles in this case also vary and the figures can be classified in the following way:

• Right-angled triangle – with the 90 degrees angle.
• Acute triangle – with largest angle is less than 90 degrees.
• Obtuse triangle – the largest angle is over 90 degrees.

Quadrilaterals

Imagine your room, a book or a door in 2-D. They are all objects in various forms. The one thing in common is that all their shapes belong to the quadrilaterals. Similarly to triangles, depending on the sides, you can distinguish several special types.

Remember the following names:

• Rectangle;
• Square;
• Rhombus;
• Parallelogram;
• Trapezium;
• Trapezoid;
• Kite;
• Irregular Quadrilateral.

A rectangle has four sides, two pairs of which are equal. All the angles are 90 degrees. It can remind you of a field, table, etc.

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A square has four equal sides and the same angle measurements. You can have a table, an envelope, a card reader, a smartwatch of such shape.

Rhombus’s sides are parallel and equal. This form is often used for jewelry.

A parallelogram is a figure with four straight lines. Two pairs of sides are equal and parallel.

The trapezium is the opposite to any of the mentioned shapes before. Its edges and corners are random and not aligned.

A trapezoid, on the contrary, has two aligned edges of various measures.

A kite has two equal sides that adjust and two opposite angles of the similar measures.

An irregular quadrilateral is a chaotic figure among the other shapes. Its sides are of various lengths.

Curved shapes

Here you should be aware of:

• Circle;
• Oval;
• Lens;
• Arch.

These are the most popular figures that you might come across.

You can quickly figure out the circle because the radius is equal everywhere in the figure. A ball, in 2-D, is a classic example of a circular object.

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To remember how an oval looks like, associate it with the shape of an egg in 2-D. In an oval, the radius from the center to the perimeter is different.

Lens, in turn, has two bent lines that meet at opposite ends. You can say that our eyes have a similar shape.

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Arches consist of a curved line that meets a straight line at two adjacent points.

Polygons

At last, pay attention to polygons as they are often encountered in life. Have you ever seen these types of shapes and their names?

• Pentagon
• Hexagon
• Octagon
• Heptagon
• Nonagon
• Decagon
• Dodecagon
• Irregular Polygon.

What are these? Let’s sort it out, using descriptions and images. Here comes the pentagon. It has five equal sides, and the sum of the angles is equal to 540 degrees. Consequently, a hexagon has six equal sides.

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Thus, the first part of the shapes' names indicates the number of sides. Heptagon has 7 equal sides, octagon – eight, nonagon – nine, decagon – ten and dodecagon – 12, looking almost like a circle.

The irregular polygon stands out from different shapes. It has uneven edges and an angle of over 180 degrees.

Three-dimensional shapes

At the beginning of the article, we mentioned that shapes come in two different dimensions. You’ve read about one and two-dimensional figures and can now move to 3D. Generally speaking, 3D shapes consist of simple shapes, such as circles, triangles, and squares.

Let us discover some of the most popular shapes names.

Cube

The figure consist of squares, eight vertices, and six faces, and all the sides are equal.

Rectangular prism

It has features of the cube, but the faces are rectangular.

Cylinder

Have you seen magicians performing tricks with a cylindrical hat? The cylinder has two flat faces and one curved face.

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Sphere

This is a circle in 3D. It has only one bowed element.

Square pyramid

This is a mix of triangles on sides and a square on the bottom.

Triangular prism

Here, you see six vertices, nine corners, and five elements in a triangular shape.

Cone

It looks like an inverted volumetric triangle. Cone has one twisted element and a horizontal front.

Parallelepiped

All its faces are parallelograms.

The knowledge of types of shapes and their names is vital and comes in handy for various purposes, apart from mathematics itself. Now that you know the main shapes and their names, you might find it easier to solve tasks and issues.

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Source: Legit.ng