cube root

noun

: a number whose cube is a given number

Examples of cube root in a Sentence

The cube root of 8 is 2.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Simply taking the cube root of this number, this is the volume of a cube 92 meters on a side. — John Conway, Discover Magazine, 20 Aug. 2010 Around the same time, a team unconnected to Assadi posted their own result that reduced the edge coloring time to the order of m times the cube root of n (opens a new tab). — Steve Nadis, Quanta Magazine, 12 May 2025 Other rings of integers can be built out of sets of numbers that include, say, the square root of −1 (the imaginary number that mathematicians call i), or the cube root of 2. — Joseph Howlett, WIRED, 9 Mar. 2025 Unlike the more familiar real numbers – positive and negative integers, fractions, square roots, cube roots and even numbers such as pi – complex numbers have an imaginary component. — William Ross, The Conversation, 10 Mar. 2025 This led to his theory of surreal numbers — a huge new number system containing not only all the real numbers, but also a boggling collection of infinites and infinitesimals, like π minus 1 divided by the cube root of infinity. — New York Times, 16 May 2020

Word History

First Known Use

1679, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of cube root was in 1679

Rhymes for cube root

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Browse Nearby Words

cubera
cube root
CubeSat
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Cite this Entry

“Cube root.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cube%20root. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.

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Kids Definition

cube root

noun
: a number whose cube is a given number
the cube root of 27 is 3

More from Merriam-Webster on cube root

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about cube root

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