# What do you call a 3D rectangle? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 12, 2003, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-3d-rectangle/194526 "2003-08-12T00:20:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-3d-rectangle/194526/21 "2003-08-12T11:39:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by r\_k \* > “Box” is just silly. A box is a physical object, which may or may not be cuboid in shape (eg think of a hat box, which is cylindrical). “Box” is certainly not a mathematical term, unless in some kind of horribly dumbed-down school textbook that doesn’t want to scare the little darlings with proper words. Hmph. Well _I_ think it’s hella tight. A pyramid is also a physical object. Nobody but Dolly bloody Levi uses hatboxes. [Box](http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Box.html) So nyah. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-3d-rectangle/194526/22 "2003-08-12T11:55:42Z")
I just followed your link, **Achernar**. It said “Box: see cuboid.” So nyah right backatcha. 😛 I half hoped that under “cuboid” it would say “see box”, but it doesn’t… ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-3d-rectangle/194526/23 "2003-08-12T12:01:50Z")
A parallelpiped is a box whose faces are paralleograms, a cuboid is the name for a rectangular parallelpiped (i.e. one whose faces are all rectangular or square). ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-3d-rectangle/194526/24 "2003-08-12T17:19:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by r\_k \* > \*\*“Box” is just silly. A box is a physical object, which may or may not be cuboid in shape (eg think of a hat box, which is cylindrical). “Box” is certainly not a mathematical term, unless in some kind of horribly dumbed-down school textbook that doesn’t want to scare the little darlings with proper words. > > Ahem, rant over. > > Anyway, the mathematical term for “a geometric solid whose six faces are rectangles” (definition from Collins English Dictionary) is “cuboid”. It is a special case of the parallelepiped - also called a rectangular parallelepiped (note spelling, which I got wrong too in my last post!) \*\* Spelling noted. But the comment about “box” not being a mathematical term is just ignorance. Mathematicians will use whatever term they find convenient. Check out, for instance, the “box topology” on a product of spaces (usually infinitely many). And if I happened to want to talk about rectangular parallelepipeds, I would certainly call them boxes, since I much prefer one syllable to ten. Has nothing to do with dumbing down. You might be amazed at some of the common words mathematicians use in a technical sense. I have never heard “cuboid”, but it is not unreasonable. I don’t much like it on esthetic grounds, but that is purely personal. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Griffin)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-3d-rectangle/194526/25 "2003-08-12T17:31:54Z")
surely there’s 2 different types. 1. square looking from the ends but not a cube because it’s longer in one direction 2. all directions are different lengths ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-3d-rectangle/194526/26 "2003-08-12T17:58:05Z")
I was looking for the general case of a 6-sided object, all sides at right angles, with no specifications as to size. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-3d-rectangle/194526/27 "2003-08-12T18:34:25Z")
An even more general term is “k-cell”. A 1-cell is a line segment, a 2-cell is a rectangle, a 3-cell is a box, a 4-cell is four dimensional box, etc. r\_k: Do you have a problem with such words as “ball”, “handle”, “cover” and “atlas”? ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-3d-rectangle/194526/28 "2003-08-12T18:45:16Z")
Oh, I’d just like to point out that I think “box” is a perfectly acceptable term. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-3d-rectangle/194526/29 "2003-08-13T04:35:29Z")
Another factor that mathematicians consider is whether the interior and/or boundary is included. I think a “box” is usually just the boundary, while a k-cell is both. I don’t know of anything that refers to just the interior ( a ball is just the interior, but that’s round). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-a-3d-rectangle/194526.md?page=1)