Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The cardinal number equal to 2 + 1.
- n. The third in a set or sequence.
- n. Something having three parts, units, or members.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Being the sum of two and one; being one more than two: a cardinal numeral.
- The writings so condemned. The edict was intended to reconcile the Monophysites to the church by seeming to imply a partial disapproval of the Council of Chalcedon, which had admitted Theodoret and Ibas, after giving explanations, to communion.
- n. A number the sum of two and one.
- n. A symbol representing three units, as 3, III, or iii.
- n. A playing-card bearing three spots or pips.
Wiktionary
- n. cardinal A numerical value after two and before four. Represented in Arabic digits as 3; This many dots (•••).
- n. Describing a set or group with three components.
- n. The digit/figure 3.
- n. Anything measuring three units, as length.
- n. A person who is three years old.
- n. The playing card featuring three pips.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. One more than two; two and one.
- n. The number greater by a unit than two; three units or objects.
- n. A symbol representing three units, as 3 or iii.
WordNet 3.0
- n. one of four playing cards in a deck having three pips
- n. the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one and one
- adj. being one more than two
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Old English þrī, from Proto-Germanic *þrīz, from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old English thrī. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“While she browsed the audio books' shelves, I decided to browse the nearby poetry shelves -- all three of them Tsk, Copperfield: I wish you'd game up on your poetry selection overly-weighted on *three* shelves with Rumi, not that there's anything wrong with Rumi of course.”
“There were at least three fire engines -- why _three?”
“Chin was eventually subdivided into three statelets: Mahan, Chinhan, and Pynhan (known collectively as Samhan or the three Hans).”
“In these three sentences the word _Paul_ has _three different uses_.”
“Who does not remember that defense of Drewry's Bluff when Eben Farrand had only three gunboat crews and _three hastily mounted guns_, with which to drive back the heavy fleet that knew Richmond city lay helpless at its mercy?”
Four Years in Rebel Capitals An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death
“But in such cases, ūnī (not singulī) is regularly employed for _one_, and trīnī (not ternī) for three; as, -- ūnae litterae, _one epistle_; trīnae litterae, _three epistles_.”
“~ -- For ~two~ new subscribers, we will give a beautiful GLOBE three inches in diameter; for ~three~, a GLOBE four inches in diameter; for ~five~, a GLOBE six inches in diameter.”
The Nursery, No. 109, January, 1876, Vol. XIX. A Monthly Magazine for Youngest Readers
“~ -- For ~two~ new subscribers, we will give a beautiful Globe three inches in diameter; for ~three~, a Globe four inches in diameter; for ~five~, a Globe six inches in diameter, ~PRANG'S CHROMOS~ will be given as premiums at publisher's prices.”
The Nursery, No. 107, November, 1875, Vol. XVIII. A Monthly Magazine for Youngest Readers
“With this gear-drill-stock, upon a larger ring, one inch in diameter and three eighths of an inch in width, in a groove upon its periphery one fourth of an inch in width, and across the sides of the ring in two directions, I wound _three thousand four hundred and eighty-four yards_, or _nearly two miles, of silk_.”
“If we represent a unit by one dot and put round it three dots in such a way that the four form the corners of a square, _three_ is the first gnomon.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘three’.
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
Laban, circumcise, beget, Esau, Rebekah, speckle, Sodom, Pharaoh, Canaanite, Canaan, Jacob, Lot and 1286 more...
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FUN - Beatles song titles
Typical words from Beatles song titles. Can you recreate the titles?
(Grammatical words have been omitted)another, three, place, work, eyes, new, said, give, face, day, going, like and 388 more...
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EN - Glasgow stop list
Words to be replaced by a paragraph mark if you are after terms and MWEs.
about, above, across, after, afterwards, again, against, all, almost, alone, along, already and 291 more...
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RELI - words with Biblical connotations
Words in the Bible evoking biblical stories or with special spiritual meaning. Proper names have been reduced to the minimum.
ark, judgement, holy, saint, baptism, spirit, love, eternal, altar, balsam, covenant, flood and 1115 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...health, follow, condition, meeting, minister, beginning, chapter, information, language, remain, covered, respect and 2614 more...
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Lillyjames's Words
uncategorized words that I enjoy
replete, unabashed, dauntless, ubiquitous, fanged, blush, flush, murmur, mercurial, dishevelled, decrepit, raven and 146 more...
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National Library Agenda Summit
nla2006, summit, agenda, library, ala, diversity, education, learning, continuous, scan, environmental, plan and 646 more...
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cindywrites's Words
chiaroscuro, mollycoddle, feckless, evocative, provocative, invocation, beckon, allay, becalm, console, lull, soothe and 479 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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European World Systems
europe, colonization, defense, barter, feudalism, gunpowder, technology, guns, domination, lords, monarchs, transition and 250 more...
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Scriptie: The Fellowship of the Ring
the world is changed, much that once wa..., great rings, immortal, dwarf lords, miners, craftsmen, three, seven, nine, deceived, dark lord and 216 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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flyrobynfly's Words
timer, word, curator, limited, what, love, torture, speed, compassion, terror, romance, seed and 55 more...
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Number words
A list of some words for numbers (mostly cardinal numbers, but a few other important ones that have short descriptions).
aleph-one, aleph-null, infinity, googolplex, googol, trillion, billion, myllion, million, myriad, great gross, thousand and 43 more...
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gtss's list
orb, mars, penultimate, transcendental, star, palinode, condusive, plenipotentiary, red, fire, raison d’être, anagram and 42 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for three.
PossibleUnderscore One's none
Two's some
Three's a penny
Four is many and
Five is alive. Jul 23, 2009
sionnach "Another way to think of 3rd force is as the context, the seeming irrelevant stage upon which thesis and antithesis have their drama ....."
That paragraph is such meaningless tommyrot from start to finish. Jul 23, 2009
gangerh One - not good. Two - well, OK I suppose. Three - perfect. Four up to a hundred, no-no - too many. May 1, 2009
whichbe 4 x ¾ Nov 13, 2008
oroboros A very significant number. Here's a little riff on three, specifically in a scarcely appreciated form: the so-called "Law of Three". In Sufi/Gurejieffian parlance this is the fundamental dynamic of the universe. Three forces are involved in all processes. The most obvious are positive and negative, or as Gurdjieff called them, 'affirming' and 'denying'. In Chinese symbology they are 'yin' and 'yang'. It is the 3rd force, however, which blindsides all humans. Gurdjieff termed it 'reconciling', Jan Cox used the terms 'E-force' or 'E-qualizing' or 'E-rrelevant'. It is represented by the circumscribing circle that in-forms the yin and yang figures.
Another way to think of 3rd force is as the context, the seeming irrelevant stage upon which thesis and antithesis have their drama, and without which everything would be fatally unsupported, like a cinema film without the "obstruction" of the screen upon which the action unfolds. Were there only two quintessential forces responsible for all phenomena, everything would be locked in a freeze-frame tableau as every positive was balanced by its negative out to every corner of the cosmos, producing gridlock...cubed.
S/he who is mindful of the significance of three, as applicable to the driving forces inherent in everything from marital spats to world wars to milk souring in the refrigerator, has a big advantage in understanding what's really going on in life.
The Law of Three is symbolized in the enneagram by the triangle connecting/subtending the 3, 6 and 9 positions on the circumference of the circle. For the knowing observer the beautiful conformance and interrelation of the triangle within the heptagram denoting the the "Law of Seven" in the enneagram illustrates how the Law of Three completes and animates the Law of the Octave and where application of conscious, willful effort is profitable for one's personal expansion of consciousness. Jan 22, 2007