Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A work, such as an altarpiece, consisting of three painted or carved panels that are hinged together.
  • noun A hinged writing tablet consisting of three leaves, used in ancient Rome.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A picture, carving, or other representation in three compartments side by side: most frequently used for an altar-piece.
  • noun A series of writing-tablets, three in number, hinged or tied together.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A writing tablet in three parts, two of which fold over on the middle part.
  • noun A picture or altarpiece in three compartments.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun art A picture or series of pictures painted on three tablets connected by hinges.
  • noun philately A set of three se-tenant postage stamps that form a composite picture.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun art consisting of a painting or carving (especially an altarpiece) on three panels (usually hinged together)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Greek triptukhos, threefold : tri-, tri- + ptux, ptukh-, fold.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek tri- + πτυχή ("a fold").

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Examples

Comments

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  • word

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    November 15, 2007

  • I love this word because it makes me laugh. When I first heard it I thought it was one of those maps that AAA makes for your car trip!

    I thought today was kind of a "tri-ish" day.

    May 5, 2008

  • In stamp collecting, a se-tenant strip of three related stamps forming one overall design.

    August 25, 2008