Euclid, Elements of Geometry, Book I, Definitions
(Edited by Dionysius Lardner, 1855)
    
    
    
     - 
      A point is that
      which has no part.
     
- 
      A line is
      breadthless length.
     
- 
      The extremities of a line are points.
     
- 
      A straight line is a line
      which lies evenly with the points on itself.
     
- 
      A surface is that
      which has length and breadth only.
     
- 
      The extremities of a surface are lines.
     
- 
      A plane surface is a
      surface which lies evenly with the straight lines
      on itself.
     
- 
      A plane angle is the
      inclination to one another of two lines in a plane
      which meet one another and do not lie in a straight line.
     
- 
      And when the lines containing the angle are straight,
      the angle is called rectilineal.
     
- 
      When a straight line set up on a straight line makes the
      adjacent angles equal to one another, each of the equal
      angles is right, and the
      straight line standing on the other is called a
      perpendicular to that
      on which it stands.
     
- 
      An obtuse angle is an
      angle greater than a right angle.
     
- 
      An acute angle is an
      angle less than a right angle.
     
- 
      A boundary is that which
      is an extremity of anything.
     
- 
      A figure is that which is
      contained by any boundary or boundaries.
     
- 
      A circle is a plane
      figure contained by one line such that all the straight
      lines falling upon it from one point among those lying
      within the figure are equal to one another;
     
- 
      And the point is called the centre
      of the circle.
     
- 
      A diameter of the circle
      is any straight line drawn through the centre and
      terminated in both directions by the circumference of
      the circle, and such a straight line also bisects the
      circle.
     
- 
      A semicircle is the figure
      contained by the diameter and the circumference cut off
      by it.  And the centre of the semicircle is the same as
      that of the circle.
     
- 
      Rectilineal figures are
      those which are contained by straight lines,
      trilateral figures being
      those contained by three,
      quadrilateral
      those contained by four, and
      multilateral
      those contained by more than four straight lines.
     
- 
      Of trilateral figures,
      an equilateral triangle
      is that which has its three sides equal,
      an isosceles triangle
      that which has two of its sides alone equal, and
      a scalene triangle
      that which has its three sides unequal.
     
- 
      Further, of trilateral figures,
      a right-angled triangle
      is that which has a right angle,
      an obtuse-angled triangle
      that which has an obtuse angle, and
      an acute-angled triangle
      that which has its three angles acute.
     
- 
      Of quadrilateral figures,
      a square is that
      which is both equilateral and right-angled;
      an oblong that
      which is right-angled but not equilateral;
      a rhombus that
      which is equilateral but not right-angled; and
      a rhomboid that
      which has its opposite sides and angles equal
      to one another but is neither equilateral nor
      right angled.  And let quadrilaterals other
      than these be called
      trapezia.
     
- 
      Parallel straight lines
      are straight lines which, being in the same plane and
      being produced indefinitely in both directions, do not
      meet one another in either direction.
     
  
  
  
   Book I: Euclid, Elements, Book I (ed. Sir Thomas L. Heath, 1st Edition, 1908)
  
  
   Next: Euclid, Elements, Book I, Postulates (ed. Sir Thomas L. Heath, 1st Edition, 1908)
  
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