third

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The ordinal number matching the number three in a series.
2. n. One of three equal parts.
3. n. Music An interval of three degrees in a diatonic scale.
4. n. Music A tone separated by three degrees from a given tone, especially the third tone of a scale.
5. n. The transmission gear or gear ratio used to produce forward speeds next higher to those of second in a motor vehicle.
6. n. Baseball Third base.
7. n. Merchandise whose quality is below the standard set for seconds.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In golf, a handicap allowance equivalent to one stroke at every third hole; an allowance of six strokes in eighteen holes.
2. Next after the second: an ordinal numeral.
3. Being one of three equal subdivisions: as, the third part of anything.
4. n. One of three equal parts into which a unit or total may be divided.
5. n. plural In English and American law, the third part of the husband's personal property, which goes to the widow absolutely in the case of his dying intestate leaving a child or descendant, given (with various qualifications) by the common law and by modern statutes. The word is sometimes, however, loosely used as synonymous with dower, to denote her right to one third of the real property for life.
6. n. The sixtieth of a second of time or arc.
7. n. In music: A tone on the third degree above or below a given tone; the next tone but one in a diatonic series.
8. n. The interval between any tone and a tone on the third degree above or below it.
9. n. The harmonic combination of two tones at the interval thus defined.
10. n. In a scale, the third tone from the bottom; the mediant: solmizated mi. The typical interval of the third is that between the first and third tones of a major scale, which is acoustically represented by the ratio 4:5. Such a third is called major; a third a half-step shorter is called minor or lesser; and one two half-steps shorter is called diminished. Major and minor thirds are classed as consonances; diminished thirds as dissonances. In ancient and in early medieval music, however, the major third was dissonant, because tuned according to the Pythagorean system, so as to have the ratio 64:81; such a third is called Pythagorean. The interval of the third is highly important harmonically, since it determines the major or minor character of triads. See triad and chord.
11. n. In base-ball, same as third base. See baseball, 1.
12. To work at or treat a third time: as, to third turnips (that is, to hoe them a third time).
13. n. Thread.

Wiktionary

1. adj. The ordinal form of cardinal number three; Coming after the second.
2. n. The person or thing in the third position.
3. n. One of three equal parts of a whole.
4. n. uncountable The third gear of an engine.
5. n. music An interval consisting of the first and third notes in a scale.
6. n. baseball third base
7. n. archaic One sixtieth of a second, i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system. Also formerly known as a tierce.
8. v. To agree with a proposition or statement after it has already been seconded.
9. v. To divide into three equal parts.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Next after the second; coming after two others; -- the ordinal of three.
2. adj. Constituting or being one of three equal parts into which anything is divided.
3. n. The quotient of a unit divided by three; one of three equal parts into which anything is divided.
4. n. The sixtieth part of a second of time.
5. n. (Mus.) The third tone of the scale; the mediant.
6. n. (Law) The third part of the estate of a deceased husband, which, by some local laws, the widow is entitled to enjoy during her life.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. following the second position in an ordering or series
2. n. the base that must be touched third by a base runner in baseball
3. n. one of three equal parts of a divisible whole
4. adj. coming next after the second and just before the fourth in position
5. n. the musical interval between one note and another three notes away from it
6. n. the fielding position of the player on a baseball team who is stationed near the third of the bases in the infield (counting counterclockwise from home plate)
7. n. the third from the lowest forward ratio gear in the gear box of a motor vehicle
8. adv. in the third place