three-dimensional
Americanadjective
-
having, or seeming to have, the dimension of depth as well as width and height.
-
(especially in a literary work) fully developed.
The story came alive chiefly because the characters were vividly three-dimensional.
adjective
-
of, having, or relating to three dimensions
three-dimensional space
-
(of a film, transparency, etc) simulating the effect of depth by presenting slightly different views of a scene to each eye
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having volume
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lifelike or real
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of three-dimensional
First recorded in 1890–95
Explanation
Things that have depth and can be rotated in space are three-dimensional. Everything around you that you can touch or move around—your sneaker, your dog, the rug on the floor—is three-dimensional. Dimensionality can be a tricky quality to understand, but it helps to think of a line connecting two points as one-dimensional and a flat plane or shape, like a triangle drawn on paper, as two-dimensional. When you add depth to a shape, you get a three-dimensional object: a triangle becomes a pyramid, for example. When a story or other work of art is so well-made and detailed that it's believable, you can also describe it as three-dimensional.
Vocabulary lists containing three-dimensional
Geometry - Middle School
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Geometry - High School
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Visual Arts - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As a result, its surface is uneven, with holes, patches and the three-dimensional effects of the stitching.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
Using drones and three-dimensional mapping techniques, Danish researcher Klaus Thymann and his team have created a detailed model of what remains.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
He saw that three-dimensional experience was going to be rendered in two dimensions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026
Across several types of brain cells, the researchers observed a broad erosion of three-dimensional genome architecture.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026
Imagine we live in a three-dimensional universe, locally distorted by matter into a fourth physical dimension that we cannot perceive directly.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
