magic square
nounEtymology 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.
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
Mathematics, Number theory, Sciences 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.
- Derived terms
- alphamagic square, antimagic square, bimagic square, geomagic square, most-perfect magic square, multimagic square, pandiagonal magic square, prime reciprocal magic square, trimagic square
- Related terms
- magic constant, bimagic cube, diabolic square, heterosquare, Lo Shu square, magic circle, 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