What does cubing mean?
Cubing refers primarily to the mathematical operation of raising a number to its third power — multiplying it by itself twice — so that cubing three yields twenty-seven. Beyond arithmetic, the word has two other common lives: in the kitchen, where cubing describes cutting vegetables, meat, or bread into neat cube-shaped pieces; and in recreation, where 'cubing' is the accepted name for the hobby of solving twisty puzzles like the Rubik's Cube, with dedicated practitioners known as 'cubers' and competitive solving known as speedcubing. The word derives from 'cube', which entered English from Latin 'cubus', itself borrowed from Greek 'kybos', meaning a die or six-sided solid. Cubing carries no strong connotations — it is simply precise and functional. Its versatility across mathematics, cookery, and puzzle culture makes it a small but genuinely multi-disciplinary word.
nounThe act or process of raising a number to its third power (multiplying it by itself twice); more broadly, any process of cutting or forming something into cubes. It also names the popular puzzle-solving hobby of manipulating a Rubik's-style cube to restore each face to a single colour.
- In mathematics, raising a number or expression to its third power (n³).
- In cooking and food preparation, cutting ingredients into cube-shaped pieces.
- As a hobby or sport ('cubing' or 'speedcubing'), solving twisty puzzles such as the Rubik's Cube, often for speed.
"Cubing 4 gives 64, since 4 × 4 × 4 = 64."
"In algebra class, students practised cubing binomials to prepare for the exam."
"She took up cubing as a hobby and can now solve a Rubik's Cube in under thirty seconds."
The world record for solving a Rubik's Cube — the heart of competitive 'cubing' — is under four seconds, faster than most people can read this sentence.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cubing
The word traces to 'cube', which English adopted from Latin 'cubus' in the medieval period, ultimately from Greek 'kybos', meaning a die or a six-sided solid figure. The verb 'to cube' arose from applying that geometric idea both to numbers (raising to the third power) and to physical objects (cutting them into cube shapes). The recreational sense grew out of the Rubik's Cube, invented by Ernő Rubik in Hungary in 1974, giving rise to the modern hobbyist terms 'cubing' and 'speedcubing'. Related words sharing the same root include 'cubic', 'cuboid', and 'cubature'.
Related word forms
How cubing is actually used
The term is neutral and technical when used in mathematics, but in everyday speech 'cubing' is now strongly associated with the Rubik's Cube hobby community, where it is often called 'speedcubing'. In culinary contexts it overlaps with 'dicing', though dice are typically smaller than cubes.
Easily confused with cubing
Squaring raises a number to the second power (n × n), whereas cubing raises it to the third power (n × n × n).