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triad - 7 dictionary results

tri⋅ad

[trahy-ad, -uhd]
–noun
1. a group of three, esp. of three closely related persons or things.
2. Chemistry.
a. an element, atom, or group having a valence of three. Compare monad (def. 2), dyad (def. 3).
b. a group of three closely related compounds or elements, as isomers or halides.
3. Music. a chord of three tones, esp. one consisting of a given tone with its major or minor third and its perfect, augmented, or diminished fifth.
4. (initial capital letter) Military. the three categories of strategic-nuclear-weapons delivery systems: bombers, land-based missiles, and missile-firing submarines.

Origin:
1540–50; < L triad- (s. of trias) < Gk triás See tri-, -ad 1


tri⋅ad⋅ic, adjective
tri⋅ad⋅ism, noun
tri·ad   (trī'ād', -əd)   
n.  
  1. A group of three.
  2. Music A chord of three tones, especially one built on a given root tone plus a major or minor third and a perfect fifth.
  3. A section of a Pindaric ode consisting of the strophe, antistrophe, and epode.

[Late Latin trias, triad-, from Greek, the number three; see trei- in Indo-European roots.]
tri·ad'ic (trī-ād'ĭk) adj.

Triad

Tri"ad\, n. [L. trias, -adis, Gr. ?, ?, fr.?, ?, three: cf. F. triade. See Three, and cf. Trias, Trio.]

1. A union of three; three objects treated as one; a ternary; a trinity; as, a triad of deities.

2. (Mus.) (a) A chord of three notes. (b) The common chord, consisting of a tone with its third and fifth, with or without the octave.

3. (Chem.) An element or radical whose valence is three.

Triads of the Welsh bards, poetical histories, in which the facts recorded are grouped by threes, three things or circumstances of a kind being mentioned together.

Hindu triad. See Trimurti.

triad 
1546, "group or set of three," from L.L. trias (gen. triadis), from Gk. trias (gen. triados), from treis "three" (see three). Musical sense of "chord of three notes" is from 1801.

Main Entry: tri·ad
Pronunciation: 'trI-"ad also -&d
Function: noun
1 : a union or group of three triad of symptoms>
2 : a trivalent element, atom, or radical —tri·ad·ic /trI-'ad-ik/ adjective

triad tri·ad (trī'ād', -əd)
n.

  1. A collection of three things or symptoms having something in common.
  2. The transverse tubule, and the terminal cisternae on each side of it, in a skeletal muscle fiber.

triad

in chemistry, any of several sets of three chemically similar elements, the atomic weight of one of which is approximately equal to the mean of the atomic weights of the other two. Such triads-including chlorine-bromine-iodine, calcium-strontium-barium, and sulfur-selenium-tellurium-were noted by the German chemist J.W. Dobereiner between 1817 and 1829. The triad was the earliest atomic-weight classification of the elements

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