Types of Quadrilaterals

Types of Quadrilaterals

There are six basic types of quadrilaterals. They are:

1. Trapezium
2. Parallelogram
3. Rectangle
4. Rhombus
5. Square
6. Kite

Trapezium

It is a quadrilateral with one pair of opposite parallel sides. In the trapezium ABCD, side AB is parallel to side CD.

Parallelogram

It is a quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides. The opposite sides are parallel and equal in length. The opposite angles are equal in measure. In the parallelogram ABCD, side AB is parallel to side CD and side AD is parallel to side BC.
Also, the two diagonals formed to intersect each other at the midpoints. As in the figure given below, E is the point where both the diagonals meet. So
Length AE = EC, & Length BE = ED

Rectangle

It is a quadrilateral with all the 4 angles of equal measure, that is, each of them is 90°. Both the pairs of opposite sides are parallel and equal in length.

Rhombus

It is a quadrilateral with all the four sides having equal lengths. The Opposite sides of a rhombus are parallel and opposite angles are equal.

Square

It is a quadrilateral in which all the sides and angles are equal. Every angle is a right angle (i.e. 90° each). The pairs of opposite sides are parallel to each other.

Kite

It is a quadrilateral that has 2 pairs of equal-length sides and these sides are adjacent to each other.

Some pointers about quadrilaterals to be kept in mind are:

• Square, rectangle, and rhombus are types of parallelograms.
• A square is a rectangle as well as a rhombus.
• Rectangle and rhombus are not a square.
• A parallelogram is a trapezium.
• A trapezium is not a parallelogram.
• Kite is not a parallelogram.