By means of numerical simulations, we show that assemblies of frictionless rigid pentagons in slow shear flow possess an internal friction coefficient (equal to 0.183 ± 0.008 with our choice of moderately polydisperse grains) but no macroscopic dilatancy. In other words, despite side-side contacts tending to hinder relative particle rotations, the solid fraction under quasistatic shear coincides with that of isotropic random close packings of pentagonal particles. Properties of polygonal grains are thus similar to those of disks in that respect. We argue that continuous reshuffling of the force-bearing network leads to frequent collapsing events at the microscale, thereby causing the macroscopic dilatancy to vanish. Despite such rearrangements, the shear flow favors an anisotropic structure that is at the origin of the ability of the system to sustain shear stress. One of the most basic properties of slowly deformed solidlike granular materials is their dilatancy, i.e., their propensity to change volume under shear strain (or, more generally, deviatoric strain). In particular, initially dense granular assemblies will dilate under shear, and since its introduction by Reynolds in 1885 [1], this property is regarded as stemming from steric constraints [2], as one may expect from the naive image of Fig. 1, often relied upon in pedagogical documents.In simple shear (see Fig. 1), with the convention that shrinking strains are positive, this property is conveniently expressed by dilatancy angle ψ, defined through the ratio of normal expansion rate −˙ yy to shear rateγ :This angle may be regarded as the kinematic dual of the friction angle ϕ or friction coefficient μ * , defined as the ratio of shear stress to normal stress (coordinates are defined as in Fig. 1):An alternative definition of a friction angle ϕ relies on principal stresses σ 1 > σ 2 , mean stress p = (σ 1 + σ 2 )/2, and deviator q = (σ 1 − σ 2 )/2:Definitions of ϕ in (2) and (3) coincide within the MohrCoulomb model (which does not exactly apply to granular materials [3]). Dilatancy implies that the shear strength partly stems from the work against pressure that is necessarily spent in order to shear the granular material. The idea is often invoked to justify * emilien.azema@univ-montp2.fr † franck.radjai@univ-montp2.fr ‡ jean-noel.roux@ifsttar.fr semiempirical stress-dilatancy relations [4] between ϕ and ψ, which numerical and micromechanical investigations [5][6][7][8][9] sought to support and to relate to internal state characteristics (such as fabric or force chains). In dense granular assemblies subjected to quasistatic shear under constant normal stress σ yy , ϕ, as a function of growing shear strain γ , first increases to a maximum (the peak deviator stress, typically reached for strain γ peak of the order of 10 −2 ), and then decreases to a final plateau (in the so-called critical state of soil mechanics [4]). Meanwhile, ψ, often negative in a small initial strain interval, increases to a positive maximum (reached near γ peak ), and then decreases...