Word.ws English Dictionary

square the circle

square the circle verb: to construct a square with the same area as a given circle by using only a finite number of steps with compass and straightedge, a task which is mathematically impossible.

square the circle: to construct a square with the same area as a given circle by using only a finite number of steps...
Image: Original PNG by Plynn9 ; SVG by Alexei Kouprianov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

square the circle (third-person singular simple present squares the circle, present participle squaring the circle, simple past and past participle squared the circle)

  1. (literal) To construct a square with the same area as a given circle by using only a finite number of steps with compass and straightedge, a task which is mathematically impossible.
    • The problem of squaring the circle is the problem of determining the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter, which is called π.1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.24
  2. (figuratively) To solve a famously difficult or impossible problem.

square the circle meaning in Arabic

square the circle in Arabic

to construct a square with the same area as a circle
رَبَّعَ الدائِرة rabbaʕa d-dāʔira

Forms of square the circle

third-person singular presentsquares the circle
present participlesquaring the circle
past participlesquared the circle
pastsquared the circle

Questions about square the circle

What does square the circle mean?
Square the circle means to construct a square with the same area as a given circle by using only a finite number of steps with compass and straightedge, a task which is mathematically impossible.
What is square the circle in Arabic?
Square the circle in Arabic is رَبَّعَ الدائِرة (rabbaʕa d-dāʔira). See Square the circle meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is square the circle?
Square the circle is a verb.
What is the past tense of square the circle?
The past tense of square the circle is squared the circle.

Words near square the circle in the dictionary

  1. square shooters
  2. square stern
  3. square sterns
  4. square tab shingle
  5. square tab shingles
  6. square the circle
  7. square up
  8. square wave
  9. square waves
  10. square yard
  11. square yards

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: square the circle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-square the circle.wav.

Cite this entry: “square the circle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/square_the_circle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.