All four-sided shapes are quadrilaterals — but they come in many flavors!
A QUADRILATERAL is any closed flat shape with exactly 4 sides and 4 angles. Squares, rectangles, rhombuses, trapezoids, and parallelograms are all quadrilaterals — but they each have special features that set them apart.
Key quadrilaterals and their attributes:
Has 4 right angles
Has 4 equal sides
Has 1 pair of parallel sides
A square is the most special — it has BOTH 4 equal sides AND 4 right angles!
A rectangle needs: opposite sides equal, 4 right angles. A square has: ALL sides equal, 4 right angles. Yes! Every square fits the definition of a rectangle. But NOT every rectangle is a square (only when all sides are equal).
Attributes are features we can observe: number of sides, angle sizes, which sides are equal, which sides are parallel.
Remember This!
A right angle looks like the corner of a piece of paper. Mark right angles with a small square symbol (⊾) in the corner when drawing quadrilaterals.
Which quadrilateral has exactly 4 equal sides but does NOT necessarily have right angles?