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  • ternate
    ternate
    adjective
    consisting of three; arranged in threes.
  • Ternate
    Ternate
    noun
    an island in E Indonesia, W of Halmahera: important source of spices. 53 sq. mi. (137 sq. km).
Synonyms

ternate

1 American  
[tur-nit, -neyt] / ˈtɜr nɪt, -neɪt /

adjective

  1. consisting of three; arranged in threes.

  2. Botany.

    1. consisting of three leaflets, as a compound leaf.

    2. having leaves arranged in whorls of three, as a plant.


Ternate 2 American  
[ter-nah-te, ter-nah-tee] / tɛrˈnɑ tɛ, tərˈnɑ ti /

noun

  1. an island in E Indonesia, W of Halmahera: important source of spices. 53 sq. mi. (137 sq. km).


ternate British  
/ ˈtɜːnɪt, -neɪt /

adjective

  1. (esp of a leaf) consisting of three leaflets or other parts

  2. (esp of plants) having groups of three members

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of ternate

From the New Latin word ternātus, dating back to 1745–55. See tern 2, -ate 1

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.

See Examples For:

Steinheil has also recorded a Cerastium in which one of the leaves was provided with two midribs; above this leaf was a group of ternate leaves.

From Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants by Masters, Maxwell T.

Botanical Description.—A plant 1° high, with a creeping, glabrous stem, leaves horizontal, ternate with common long petiole.

From The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by Thomas, Jerome Beers

Biternate, twice ternate; i. e. principal divisions three, each bearing three leaflets, 59.

From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Gray, Asa

Cones dehiscent at maturity 52. virginiana Cones serotinous 53. clausa Leaves ternate.

From The Genus Pinus by Shaw, George Russell

Leaves all ternate; stems erect, or weak and ascending; achenes often small and light-colored.—Minn. to Mo., N. Mex., and westward.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

The party aimed for Ternate, an island in Indonesia, 800 miles from their shipwreck.

From The Wall Street Journal May 20, 2026

Indonesian officials said two Singaporeans and one local resident from the nearby city of Ternate had died.

From BBC May 8, 2026

The Portuguese, meanwhile, had nervously noted that visitors from Mecca, the Ottoman Empire, and other Southeast Asian Islamic sultanates frequented Ternate.

From Textbooks Dec. 14, 2022

Police say a flight attendant aboard a Citilink plane traveling from Jakarta to Ternate in North Maluku province on Sunday noticed the man change the clothes in the lavatory.

From Seattle Times Jul. 22, 2021

Wallace had no knowledge this was happening; he was too far away, in Ternate, Indonesia, for them to let him know in time.

From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman

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