Name of non-hypotenuse side

Question

From school trigonometry (and SohCahToa) the non-hypotenuse sides of a right triangle are the opposite and adjacent with respect to a given angle, but what would one call those sides when there is no given angle? I've heard legs, but that seems unsatisfactory. Are there other names?

Answer 1

The most common term used is legs, but as pointed out by others there is also the rarer term catheti.

In German, there are actually specific names for the adjacent and opposite sides: Ankathete and Gegenkathete respectively.

Answer 2

There is a specific, Greek-derived name (which I have never heard used in English) for the two short sides of a right-angled triangle. It is cathetus. It's much more common to just refer to them as "legs".

The Greek-derived term is used in other languages, though. For instance, in Norwegian, my native language, "katet" is ubiquitous.

Answer 3

They are called legs or catheti. I know that they called "Kathete" in german and this is the usual term, but it seems the term "cathetus" is rarely used in english.