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PlainSpell

square

UK /skwɛə/noun, adjective, adverb, verb

square is spelled S-Q-U-A-R-E. The wrong spelling people search most is sqaure: about 3,800 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 51 of all searches for the word. Square is a noun meaning “A polygon with four straight sides of equal length and four right angles; an equilateral rectangle; a regular…”. The plural of square is squares.

How many letters and syllables are in square?

Letters6: S-Q-U-A-R-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing69 times per million words; the 1,528th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, sqaure, about 3,800 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell square?

Square is spelled S-Q-U-A-R-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 51 of the searches for square in either form.

squarethe right spelling188,190 searches a month
sqaureu and a swapped3,800 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is square?

Square appears 69 times per million words in written English, the 1,528th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce square?

  • UK /skwɛə/
  • British /skwɛː/
  • /skweɹ/

Square has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-square.wav, En-us-square.ogg, En-au-square.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with square?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as square from its last stressed vowel (/ɛə/, British pronunciation):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of square

  • squares plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • squarer comparative
  • squarest superlative
  • more square comparative
  • most square superlative
  • squaring participle, present
  • squared participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does square mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A polygon with four straight sides of equal length and four right angles; an equilateral rectangle; a regular quadrilateral.

  2. 2

    A cell in a grid.

    You may not move a piece to a square already occupied by one of your own pieces.

  3. 3

    A square piece, part, or surface.

    a square of glass

  4. 4

    The front of a woman's dress over the bosom, usually worked or embroidered.

  5. 5

    CanadaUSA dessert cut into rectangular pieces, or a piece of such a dessert.

  6. 6

    A certain number of lines, forming a portion of a column, nearly square; used chiefly in reckoning the prices of advertisements in newspapers.

  7. 7

    An L- or T-shaped tool used to place objects or draw lines at right angles.

  8. 8

    obsoleteA true measure, standard, or pattern.

adjective

  1. 1

    Shaped like a square (the polygon).

  2. 2

    Forming a right angle (90°).

    a square corner

  3. 3

    Forming right angles in all planes as intended; not racked or leaning.

    The foundation has to be level and the framing has to be square.

  4. 4

    Forming right angles with the mast or the keel, and parallel to the horizon; said of the yards of a square-rigged vessel when they are so braced.

  5. 5

    Used in the names of units of area formed by multiplying a unit of length by itself.

    A floor that measures 4 feet square has an area of 16 square feet.

  6. 6

    Honest; straightforward; fair.

    I'm just looking for a square deal on my car repair.

  7. 7

    Satisfied; comfortable with; not experiencing any conflict.

  8. 8

    Even; tied

    to make or leave the accounts square

adverb

  1. 1

    Directly.

verb

  1. 1

    To adjust so as to align with or place at a right angle to something else; in particular

    The casting was mounted on a milling machine so that its sides could be squared.

  2. 2

    To place at a right angle to the mast or keel.

    to square the yards

  3. 3

    To rotate the oars so that they are perpendicular to the water.

  4. 4

    To resolve or reconcile; to suit or fit.

    John can square this question up for us.

  5. 5

    To adjust or adapt so as to bring into harmony with something.

    I cannot square the results of the experiment with my hypothesis.

  6. 6

    Of a value, term, or expression, to multiply by itself; to raise to the second power.

  7. 7

    To draw, with a pair of compasses and a straightedge only, a square with the same area as.

    square the circle

  8. 8

    To tile (completely fill) with squares.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate square?

Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of square: sq, sqr.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Square in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcarré (type of polygon), équerre (tool), place, square (open space in a town), case (cell in a grid), perpendiculaire à (forming a right angle)
GermanQuadrat (type of polygon), Platz (open space in a town), Feld, Schachfeld (cell in a grid), Normalo (slang: socially conventional person), quadratisch (shaped like a square)
Portuguesequadrado (type of polygon), esquadro (tool), praça (open space in a town), casa (cell in a grid), perpendicular (forming a right angle), alinhar (to adjust so as to align with or place at a…)
Spanishcuadro, cuadrado (type of polygon), escuadra, cartabón (45º) (tool), plaza (open space in a town), casilla (cell in a grid)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does square come from?

From Middle English square, sqware, squyre; from Old French esquarre, esquerre, (modern French équerre), from Vulgar Latin *exquadra, from Latin ex- + quadro, from quadrus (compare English quad and quadra). Doublet of squad and squadra. Displaced Old English fēowerecge (fēower nominative + ecg accusative, as in "four-edged").

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after square