Slang dictionary
square root
[ skwair root ]
What does square root mean?
Time for … math class? A square root is sex position (apparently made-up as a joke) that involves four people lying on their sides, forming a square shape as they perform oral sex on each other. It puns on the Australia slang root, or “have sex,” and the mathematical square root.
In math, a square root refers to a number that multiplies itself to get another number, e.g., 8 x 8 = 64, making 8 the square root of 64. But not even this is safe from all sorts of sex jokes.
Where does square root come from?
In Australia, root has been a slang term for “having sex” that has all the force of “fuck.” It dates back to at least the 1950s and is likely based on older slang terms for the penis and vagina.
The slang square root, then, is sexual intercourse that takes the shape of a square, orally pleasuring four people … and possibly requiring a slide rule to calculate the right angles. The term appeared in Urban Dictionary in 2010.
The position can also allude to another position, 69, which also involves simultaneous oral sex between two people. By including four people, instead of two, you’re squaring the position, i.e., 2 x 2 = 4.
As far as fun math-sex jokes go (and who doesn’t love those), there are many. Randall Munroe, creator of long-running webcomic xkcd, cleverly riffed on numbers compared to sexual positions, starting with 69 and building up towards increasingly elaborate, and impossible, ones, such as the square root of 8.
The square root of 4761 is also 69, which can be a fun euphemism for getting busy for the math geeks among us.
Even rapper Drake has gifted us with some math-sex in a verse on Rihanna’s 2010 song “What’s My Name?”: “The square root of 69 is 8 somethin’, right? / ‘Cause I’ve been tryna work it out, oh.” Get it? Give it up for Professor Drake.
Y'all know it took me like two years to realize drake said "the square root of 69 is ATE something". Like oral sex. Wow. I felt dumb as hell
— Fire Lord Zuko (@AuntieSlayer) February 4, 2014
Examples of square root
Who uses square root?
Math + sex = jokes. While Australians are more likely to get the punchline in square root, others have found plenty of dorky-sexy puns based on square root.
If the the square root of 4 is 2 , what's the proven mathematical equation for best sex ??? Answer soon @sunriseon7 … Hey it's science !!
— Larry Emdur (@larryemdur) April 26, 2014
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of square root like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of square root that will help our users expand their word mastery.