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triad

[trahy-ad, -uhd]

Example Sentences Origin

noun

a group of three, especially of three closely related persons or things.

Chemistry.

an element, atom, or group having a valence of three. Compare monad (def. 2), dyad (def. 3).

a group of three closely related compounds or elements, as isomers or halides.

Music. a chord of three tones, especially one consisting of a given tone with its major or minor third and its perfect, augmented, or diminished fifth.

(initial capital letter) Military. the three categories of strategic-nuclear-weapons delivery systems: bombers, land-based missiles, and missile-firing submarines.

Origin:
1540–50; < Latin triad- (stem of trias) < Greek triás See tri-, -ad¹

Related forms

tri·ad·ic, adjective

tri·ad·ism, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To triad

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Triad is always a great word to know.

So is lye. Does it mean:

a highly concentrated, aqueous solution of potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide, or any solution resulting from leaching or percolation

of, pertaining to, or tending to develop into icelike crystals: glacial phosphoric acid

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Example Sentences

All of these paradoxes form a triad that is the way of everything.

The second triad harks back to the central principle of scarcity.

The major interval contained within the scale generates an implied major triad built on the fourth degree of the scale.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

triad (ˈtraɪæd)

—n
1.	a group of three; trio
2.	chem an atom, element, group, or ion that has a valency of three
3.	music a three-note chord consisting of a note and the third and fifth above it
4.	an aphoristic literary form used in medieval Welsh and Irish literature
5.	the US strategic nuclear force, consisting of intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and bombers

[C16: from Late Latin trias, from Greek; related to Greek treis three]

tri'adic

—*adj*

'triadism

—n

Triad (ˈtraɪæd)

—n
	any of several Chinese secret societies, esp one involved in criminal activities, such as drug trafficking

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

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.

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

triad tri·ad (trī'ād', -əd)
n.

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

Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopedia

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

Learn more about triad with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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