The aperture‐coupled regular and irregular pentagon‐shaped dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) are presented providing wideband and multiband performances. The regular and irregular pentagon shape DRAs show wideband impedance matching (S11 = −10 dB) bandwidth of 42% (from 2.55 to 3.9 GHz) and 45.8% (from 2.57 to 4.1 GHz), respectively. Further, the irregular pentagon shape DRA also shows triple bands: 2.42–2.61 GHz (Band 1), 3.15–4.05 GHz (Band 2) and 5–5.65 GHz (Band 3) with a percentage matching bandwidths of 7.55, 23.77, and 12.2%, respectively. These DRAs offer acceptable directional radiation patterns for both wideband and multiband performances. Prototype of the regular pentagon shape DRA has been fabricated and experimentally verified for both the matching bandwidth and radiation performance. The simulated and measured results are in very good agreement. These DRAs can find applications in wireless communications devices such as base stations. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:395–400, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27338