magic square

English

Etymology

As magical square by 1670 and magic square by 1701 (see Citations). Calque of French quarré magique or Latin quadratum magicum. Magic refers to its original function as a talisman.

Pronunciation

  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Noun

magic square (plural magic squares)

  1. (games) A palindromic square word arrangement, usually in the form of a magic amulet.
    Probably the best-known magic square is the 5×5 square consisting of the words ROTAS OPERA TENET AREPO SATOR.
  2. (number theory) An n-by-n arrangement of n2 numbers such that the numbers in each row, in each column and along both diagonals all have the same sum.
Magic amulet
3 x 3 magic square

Derived terms

Translations

See also

See also

other terms of interest
  • bimagic cube
  • diabolic square
  • heterosquare
  • Lo Shu square
  • magic circle
  • magic constant
  • magic cube
  • magic cylinder
  • magic hexagon
  • magic hypercube
  • magic series
  • magic sphere
  • magic star
  • magic tesseract
  • multimagic cube
  • pantriagonal magic cube
  • perfect magic cube
  • satanic square
  • semiperfect magic cube
  • simple magic cube
  • sudoku
  • trimagic cube
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