Identifying squares, rectangles, rhombuses and parallelograms:

Squares, rectangles, rhombuses and parallelograms are all quadrilaterals, which means they are closed polygons, made of 4 straight sides, and the sides can't cross each other (they don't touch anywhere except at the ends of the the straight sides).

A square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that all of its sides are the same length, and all of its interior angles have the same angle measure (90°).

A rectangle is a quadrilateral in which each (interior) angle is 90° .

A rhombus is a quadrilateral where all 4 sides have the same length

A parallogram is a quadrilateral that has 2 pairs of (opposite) parallel sides.

Here are some quadrilaterals. Decide whether each one is a square, rectangle, rhombus or parallelogram. Remember that a single shape can have more than one classification (eg. a square is also a rectangle). Move your mouse cursor over the shape to see my answers.

image of a square tilted at a 45 angle, rollover to text: square, rhombus, rectangle and parallelogram non-square rhombus (this is a parallelogram, but not a rectangle) non-square rectangle (a parallelogram, but not a rhombus)

non rectangular, non-rhombus parallelogram

Check your knowledge with a review problem/investigation