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.

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

• antimagic square
• bimagic square
• most-perfect magic square
• multimagic square
• pandiagonal magic square
• prime reciprocal magic square
• trimagic square

Translations

n-by-n arrangement of n² numbers

• Azerbaijani: sehrli kvadrat
• Bengali: জাদু বর্গ (jadu borgo)
• Catalan: àbac màgic m, quadrat màgic m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 幻方 (huànfāng)

• Finnish: taikaneliö
• French: carré magique (fr) m
• German: magisches Quadrat n
• Hungarian: bűvös négyzet
• Indonesian: persegi ajaib
• Japanese: 魔方陣 (ja) (まほうじん, mahōjin)
• Korean: 마방진(魔方陣) (mabangjin)
• Malayalam: മാന്ത്രിക ചതുരം (māntrika caturaṁ)
• Persian: مربع جادویی
• Portuguese: quadrado mágico (pt) m
• Romanian: pătrat magic n
• Russian: маги́ческий квадра́т (ru) m (magíčeskij kvadrát)
• Spanish: cuadrado mágico m
• Tamil: மாயச் சதுரம் (māyac caturam)
• Telugu: మాయా చతురస్రం (māyā caturasraṁ)
• Thai: จัตุรัสกล
• Turkish: sihirli kare
• Uzbek: sehrli kvadrat
• Vietnamese: ma trận kì ảo (魔陣奇幻)

See also

• magic constant

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

• Category:magic squares on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• Magic square on Wikipedia.Wikipedia