In English, is there a difference between square and squared?

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For example, if I say "one over $x$ square/squared"

Do I mean: $1/\sqrt{x}$ or $1/x^2$?

Is there some other way to distinguish between the English pronounciation between $x^2$ and $\sqrt{x}$?

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1 Answer

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I would understand both "one over $x$ squared" and "one over the square of $x$" to mean $\dfrac1{x^2}$

To get $\dfrac{1}{\sqrt{x}}$ I would want the word root or something similar, as in "one over the square root of $x$" or perhaps slightly ambiguously "the square root of one over $x$". Saying "$x$ to the minus a half" would mean the same thing

When reading the statistical test based on $\chi^2$, I would call this "a chi-squared test" but would understand someone saying "a chi-square test" to mean the same thing

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