Identify names of quadrilaterals
for 3rd grade

Identify types of quadrilateral shapes

A quadrilateral is a shape with 4 sides. Many regular 2D quadrilateral shapes can be characterized in terms of the length of their sides, how many of those sides are parallel and the nature of their internal angles. Here are the main characteristics of the shapes explored in this topic:

Parallelogram:

• A quadrilateral with opposite sides parallel and equal in length
• Opposite angles are also equal
• Examples: rectangle, square, diamond, etc

Rhombus:

• A quadrilateral with all sides equal in length
• Opposite angles are also equal
• Diagonals intersect at 90 degrees
• Examples: diamond, lozenge, etc

Kite:

• A quadrilateral with two pairs of adjacent sides equal in length
• Diagonals intersect at 90 degrees
• Examples: kite, dart, etc

Trapezium (trapezoid in the USA):

• A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides
• Non-parallel sides may or may not be equal in length
• Examples: isosceles trapezium, right trapezium, etc

This topic shows you diagrams of different quadrilateral shapes and you have to name them correctly. You may have noticed that the rhombus is a special type of parallelogram where all 4 sides are the same length. You should always go with the most specific name, so if it is a rhombus go with rhombus even though parallelogram is also technically correct.