Other forms: cubes, cubed
A cube is a solid box shape with six identical square faces, the same across, up and through. A dice, a sugar cube, an ice cube dropped into a glass, a Rubik's Cube twisted out of order.
Cooks cube things, and cube the carrots means cut them into small blocks; a stock cube is dried flavouring pressed into one. Maths uses the word twice over: the cube of a number is that number multiplied by itself twice, so the cube of 3 is 27, and the cube root works backwards from 27 to 3. The adjective is cubic, and it measures volume, as in cubic metres of concrete or a van of so many cubic feet. Cubed potatoes and a cubed number are different animals: one has been chopped, the other multiplied.
1nouncubeA solid shape with six equal square faces.
“Drop two cubes of ice into the glass.”
2nounpressedA small block of something cut or pressed into that shape.
“She crumbled a stock cube into the pan.”
3nounresultThe result of multiplying a number by itself twice.
“The cube of 4 is 64.”
4verbfoodTo cut food into small square blocks.
“Cube the potatoes before you boil them.”
5verbmultiplyTo multiply a number by itself twice.
“Cube the length of one edge to get the volume.”
cube is a solid shape.
Cube travelled a well-worn road: Ancient Greek kubos into Latin as cubus, into Old French as cube, and into English with the spelling untouched. The word it pushed aside was the Old English taefel, which covered the cube, the die and the board game you played with them, all in one.
Ancient Greek
κύβος
Latin
cubus
Old French
cube
English, today
cube
From Old French cube, from Latin cubus, from Ancient Greek κύβος. tæfel ("cube, die, game with dice or tables").
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA