What is the difference between a quadrilateral and a polygon?

1 Answer
Feb 2, 2017

A quadrilateral is a polygon with #4# sides. Polygons can have any number of sides greater than or equal to #3#.

Explanation:

Polygon is the general term for a geometrical figure consisting of a closed finite sequence of line segments, joined at the ends. The simplest polygon (apart from the degenerate digon which has #2# sides) is the triangle. Polygons include regular and irregular triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, heptagons, octagons, etc.

Quadrilateral is the name we give to any polygon with exactly #4# sides. Quadrilaterals include squares, rectangles, rhombuses, parallelograms, kites, and several more.

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Footnote

The digon (which has two sides) is not very meaningful in ordinary Euclidean plane geometry. It is more meaningful in the context of non-Euclidean geometries, such as elliptical or spherical geometry.