As a noun, a cube is a solid shape with six equal square faces, like a dice or a small box. As a verb, to cube something is to cut it into small square pieces, or in math, to multiply a number by itself three times.
From Latin *cubus* and Greek *kubos* meaning “cube, die, square block.” The shape name came first, and the math meaning developed from thinking of length × width × height of a cube.
When you ‘cube’ a number, you’re imagining building a 3D box out of it—like 3 × 3 × 3 is a 3-by-3-by-3 block of tiny cubes. The same idea is in the kitchen when you cube potatoes: you’re literally turning them into mini geometric solids.
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