Math Terms

Students will hear many new terms in third grade math. While a lot of these will be familiar to them, they will also be learning quite a few new terms.

In algebra, they’ll explore symbols, operations, equations, and unknown quantities. They’ll learn the commutative property and the associative property. Some of these terms will be very important to know and use regularly, while others are simply meant to be introduced.

In geometry, they’ll learn the names of various shapes in more specific terms, like polygons, quadrilaterals, and parallelograms. They’ll study solid figures and learn the difference between a triangular prism, a cone, and a sphere. They’ll also learn about lines and angles, as well as slides, flips, and turns.

In measurement, they’ll need to know the US Customary System and all of its units of measurement. These include inches, feet, cups, quarts, pints, and pounds, just to name a few. The Metric System comes with its own terms, like centimeter, meter, gram, kilogram, and liter.

In the area of number sense, students will be expected to know terms like place value, digits, standard form, and expanded form. They’ll use regrouping in subtraction and learn to estimate and round.

There will be many new third grade math terms to learn in third grade, but the good news is that they build upon what students already know.