Cubic

How to spell cubic

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cubic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cubic mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to volume measured in three dimensions, or having the shape of a cube.
2. adjectiveInvolving a number or variable raised to the third power.

Cubic in a sentence

• The tank holds two hundred cubic metres of water.

• The students learned to solve a cubic equation in algebra class.

• The removal firm quoted a price per cubic foot of storage.

• The graph of a cubic function curves in two directions.

Where does cubic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word reaches English through Latin cubicus, which was itself borrowed from the Greek kybikos, meaning 'shaped like a cube'. The root is the Greek noun kybos, which originally named a six-sided die used in games of chance before it came to describe any solid block with six equal square faces. Latin took the word as cubus and the adjective cubicus, and from there it passed into French as cubique and into English in the late 1500s, first in mathematical and geometric writing. Because cube measures the third power of a number, 'cubic' settled into its modern role describing volume, as in cubic metres or cubic feet. The same kybos die also lies behind the everyday word 'cube' itself, so picturing a die can help fix the spelling of both.

How the word is built

• cub- (from cube, a solid with six square faces)
• -ic (adjective suffix: relating to)