March 25, 2021 by Luis F. Dominguez Spanish Vocabulary 0 comments

The Practical Guide to Math Vocabulary in Spanish

Are you planning to study math in Spanish and seeking useful math vocabulary? Matemáticas is a broad and fascinating field of study!

Keep reading to discover why you should learn math vocabulary in Spanish and why people rightly say that math is an universal language. I’ll provide you with a ton of useful math terms from basic concepts to advanced math vocabulary.

Why Learn Math Vocabulary in Spanish?

Learning a new language is a multi-layered process that involves several areas of knowledge. Yes, you usually start with basic vocabulary and grammar rules, but as you progress in your Spanish skills, these areas start becoming more diverse and varied.

At this point, learning math vocabulary is an excellent idea. Here, I’m not talking about the basic knowledge of numbers in Spanish, as that’s everyday vocabulary that you need to learn even if you never do math in the language.

The terms I’ll cover in this article are subject-specific—math vocabulary for people who do math in Spanish. Think of students in Spanish-speaking countries, professionals in collaboration, or international researchers.

Math: An Universal Language

It’s been said that music and math are the only two truly universal languages. The idea behind this expression is that both music and math can be understood and deciphered by any human in the world, regardless of the language they speak.

Although that is true, in reality you still need a point of reference to work with both math and music in your own language. Musical notes, math symbols, and all the terminology surrounding these beautiful universal languages still need to have names in every different language spoken by people.

Which is why, even though you may not need to speak a specific language to learn math, you still need the math terms used in your goal language to learn math in that specific language.

Useful Math Vocabulary in Spanish

I’ve written before about Numbers in Spanish: Addition, Subtraction, and Fractions, so I won’t be repeating that math vocabulary here. I strongly recommend reading that article if you want to complete your math vocabulary knowledge.

Basic Math Words

Let’s start with some basic math vocabulary you’ll need every time you deal with math in Spanish.

*Español*	English
las matemáticas	math
el número	number
par	even
impar	odd
suma	addition
sumar	to add
resta	subtraction
restar	to subtract
multiplicación	multiplication
multiplicar	to multiply
tablas de multiplicar	times tables
división	division
dividir	to divide
aritmética	arithmetic
álgebra	algebra
geometría	geometry
trigonometría	trigonometry
cálculo	calculus
estadística	statistics
fracciones	fractions
fisica	physics

Math Symbols

Now, let’s take a look at the most common math symbols in Spanish.

*Español*	English
+ más	+plus
–menos	-minus
xpor	xtimes
÷dividido entre	÷divided by
. punto	.point
%por ciento	%percent
%porcentaje	%percentage
√raíz cuadrada	√square root
∛raíz cúbica	∛cubic root
= igual	=equal

Geometry Terms

Since the times of ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, geometry has been a helpful body of knowledge for humanity. Here is some common Spanish math vocabulary related to geometry.

*Español*	English
las figuras geométricas	geometric shapes
el cuadrado	square
el rectángulo	rectangle
el triángulo	triangle
el triángulo equilátero	equilateral triangle
el triángulo isósceles	isosceles triangle
el círculo	circle
el rombo	diamond
el trapecio	trapezium
el pentágono	pentagon
el hexágono	hexagon
el octágono	octagon
el dodecaedro	dodecahedron
el paralelogramo	parallelogram
el cubo	cubo
el prisma	prism
el prisma rectangular	rectangular prism
la pirámide	pyramid
la pirámide pentagonal	pentagonal pyramid
la esfera	sphere
el cono	cone
el cilindro	cylinder
la circunferencia	circumference
el radio	radius
el diámetro	diameter
el perímetro	perimeter
el área	area
la distancia	distance
la hipotenusa	hypotenuse
el cateto	leg or side
la longitud	length
el volumen	volume
la capacidad	capacity
la línea	line
la línea recta	straight line
la línea curva	curved line
la base	base
la altura	height
la esquina	corner
el ángulo	angle
el ángulo recto	right angle
el ángulo obtuso	obtuse angle
el ángulo agudo	acute angle
el ángulo reflexivo	reflex angle
el grado	degree
la simetría	symmetry
la superficie	surface
el arco	arc
la longitud de arco	arc length
cóncavo	concave
convexo	convex

Algebra Terms

It’s time to learn some algebra terms in Spanish.

*Español*	English
el álgebra	algebra
algebraico	algebraic
la ecuación	equation
el coeficiente	coefficient
la variable	variable
la exponente	exponent
la exponencial	exponential
el monomio	monomial
el binomio	binomial
el trinomio	trinomial
el polinomio	polynomial
binario	binary

Advanced Math Terms

Finally, in this part you’ll find both advanced math terms and other math vocabulary that wasn’t included in any of the previous sections.

*Español*	English
el promedio	average
el axioma	axiom
el eje	axis
el valor	value
la función compuesta	compound function
la convergencia	convergence
el sistema coordenado	coordinate system
el plano cartesiano	cartesian plane
el teorema de pitágoras	pythagoras theorem
el coseno	cosine
el seno	sine
la tangente	tangent
bidimensional	two-dimensional
tridimensional	three-dimensional
la unidad	unit
el segmento	segment
la rotación	rotation
el número racional	rational number
el número real	real number
el número decimal	decimal number
el resultado	result
el cociente	quotient
la función racional	rational function
la propiedad	property
la probabilidad	probability
la demostración	proof
el principio	principle
el problema	problem
el número primo	prime number
positivo	positive
negativo	negative
la derivada	derivative
la integral	integral
el cálculo integral	integral calculus
ecuaciones diferenciales	differential equations
el intervalo	interval
el gradiente	gradient
la gráfica	graph
el fractal	fractal
la elipse	ellipse
el límite	limit
el logaritmo	logarithm
la matriz	matrix

Learn Math In Spanish and Learn Spanish with Math

You can do it both ways! Learn Spanish with math by learning this math vocabulary. Then, you’ll be able to learn math in Spanish, as you’ve already got the needed terms to do it. Either way, you’ll be improving your mathematical and language skills at the same time.

Sign up for a free class with one of our certified, native Spanish speaking teachers from Guatemala, and start using math vocabulary in Spanish today!

learn spanish online — *Sign up for your* *FREE TRIAL CLASS* *today!*

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Luis F. Dominguez

Freelance Writer at Homeschool Spanish Academy

Luis F. Domínguez is a freelance writer and independent journalist interested in travel, languages, art, books, history, philosophy, politics and sports. He has written for Fodor’s, Yahoo!, Sports Illustrated, Telemundo, and Villa Experience, among other brands of print and digital media in Europe and North America.

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