VOOZH about

URL: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/rectangle-oblong.3976304/

⇱ rectangle / oblong | WordReference Forums

Menu
Install the app
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.

rectangle / oblong

Mnemon

Banned
Persian - 𐎱𐎾𐎿𐎑

Source: Oxford Elementary Learner's Dictionary 2006


Hi.
Isn't there any difference between an oblong and a rectangle? Do you use them interchangeably?
An oblong is generally a longer rectangle. We would probably not call the one in that picture an oblong if it were rotated 90 degrees.
Mathematically, rectangles also include squares, but oblongs always have different lengths. But in everyday use rectangle means oblong.
This is from the WR dictionary (Random House).
  1. Mathematics - elongated, usually from the square or circular form.
To me, as in this definition, there is no requirement for an oblong shape to have 90Β° corners, whereas a rectangle has to.

This is the definition shown by a Google search.
  1. an object or flat figure in an elongated rectangle or oval shape.
    "an oblong of grass"
And here's the etymology:

- late Middle English: from Latin oblongus β€˜longish’.

I would not label that picture oblong. It's too restrictive.
Last edited:
I don't think oval really applies. An elongated circle is not an oval. To me, at least, it's the shape of that pill above. (Which is, of course, in three dimensions so not really a circle to start with.) If it has two parallel sides (or faces, in this case), I think it qualifies as oblong.
I would say these pills are oblong. I definitely would not call them rectangles.

View attachment 77694
Ah, I see. Yes, I might call those "oblong with rounded corners".

I'd be less likely to call them "rectangles with rounded corners" because "rectangles" sounds so much more mathematical.
I'd be less likely to call them "rectangles with rounded corners" because "rectangles" sounds so much more mathematical.
I wouldn't call them "rectangles with rounded corners" either, because then I'd expect each of the four corners to have a quarter circle.
In kentix's pills the quarter circles have pairwise merged into semicircles. People often call that shape oval, although it doesn't fit the usual definitions of the word.
I don't know a word for the shape in picture #8. My dialect of English has no such word.

Note that the pills pictured in #8 are 3-dimensional, while "oblong" is 2-dimensional. So the shape must be something like an "XYZ solid". But I don't know what "XYZ" is. Is the pill a demi-oblongated ovalatoid solid?
"an object or flat figure in an elongated rectangle or oval shape."

There is no requirement that it be flat, i.e. two dimensions. An object is commonly three dimensions.
There is no requirement that it be flat, i.e. two dimensions. An object is commonly three dimensions.
There may not be a requirement than an be flat, but a is by definition two-dimensional.

A 3d object can still be "oblong", but what that would have to mean is that its projection onto one or more 2d planes has "an elongated rectangle or oval shape". In the case of your pills, they have their "oval" shape only in the plane of your photograph. If we were to look at them from the sides, they would probably look like rectangles with rounded corners, but probably with quarter ellipses rather than quarter circles to give the weird domed effect that the shading in the picture suggests they must have.

I would also call them oblong, by the way. For me, the term doesn't imply that it as to be rectangular.
Yes, that's my only point. Rectangles are a subset of things that are oblong. (And are definitely 2-D.) So I wouldn't label that picture that way, which suggests that rectangle and oblong are equivalent terms.

I have no recollection of actually ever hearing the term oblong in studying geometry. It's was all squares and rectangles and rhombi and such. πŸ‘ Wink ;)
Last edited:
Another exactly. Oblong is commonly an adjective. Rectangle is a noun.
Back
Top Bottom