ternate
adjective
consisting of three; arranged in threes.
ternate
1 American
[tur-nit, -nayt]
/ ˈtɜr nɪt, -neɪt /
adjective
-
consisting of three; arranged in threes.
-
Botany.
-
consisting of three leaflets, as a compound leaf.
-
having leaves arranged in whorls of three, as a plant.
-
Ternate
2
American
[ter -nah-te, ter-nah-tee]
/ tɛrˈnɑ tɛ, tərˈnɑ ti /
noun
ternate
British
/ ˈtɜːnɪt, -neɪt /
adjective
-
(esp of a leaf) consisting of three leaflets or other parts
-
(esp of plants) having groups of three members
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:
Leaves binate, ternate, or both, from 10 to 15 cm. long, stout and rigid; resin-ducts external, or external and medial.
From The Genus Pinus by George Russell Shaw
Leaves ternate or binate, from 10 to 15 cm. long; resin-ducts medial or with an occasional internal duct, hypoderm biform.
From The Genus Pinus by George Russell Shaw
Nearly glabrous, bushy and rather upright; leaves twice pinnate or ternate, the leaflets cut-toothed; flowers cymose; calyx 5-toothed; disk very thick, adherent to the ovary; berries black, obovate.
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 Asa Gray
Leaves ternate; leaflets 4–5′ long, half-ovate, obtuse, entire, stiff and downy, the middle one elliptical.
From The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by Jerome Beers Thomas
Leaves ternate, the lateral leaflets of the lower leaves parted nearly to the base; stamens 5, opposite to the sepals.—Iowa,
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 Asa Gray
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 people of Ternate allied with the Muslims in Majapahit and Ayutthaya to drive out the Portuguese.
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
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
