Carrés

Carrés is the plural form of carré in French and most commonly refers to a geometric square: a four-sided figure with equal sides and four right angles. The term can also function as an adjective to describe something that has a square shape or occupies a square area, as in phrases like une table carrée or un terrain carré.

In mathematics, carrés denotes square numbers, which are the integers obtained by multiplying an integer by itself (1, 4, 9, 16, 25, ...). The operation is called squaring and is written with the exponent 2, for example x^2.

As a unit of area, carré appears in expressions such as mètre carré or kilomètre carré, used to measure the surface area of a region or object. The term indicates an area equal to a square with a given side length.

Etymology and usage notes: carré originates from Old French and ultimately from Latin quadratus, meaning “made square.” The plural form carrés is used when referring to multiple squares or multiple square numbers, while carré as a singular noun or adjective remains common in everyday French.

See also: carré, square in geometry, square numbers, units of area such as mètre carré.