What Does Area in Geometry Mean?

Lakes often freeze over during the winter, meaning a covering of ice appears on top of the water. Then you can go ice skating! The larger the lake, the larger the ice’s surface is, and you get more space for skating. When the entire lake is covered with ice, you can skate on any part of it. The ice-covered part of the lake where you can skate is called an area.

All two-dimensional (flat) figures have an area. To find the area, you can cut a piece of paper to fit on top of the figure, or you can cover it with jigsaw puzzle pieces. You’ll learn how to calculate the area of different figures later. For weird-shaped figures, you either have to divide them into figures you already know the area of, or find some other creative way to fit the figure into known areas.