Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

triglyph

[trahy-glif]
noun Architecture.
  1. a structural member of a Doric frieze, separating two consecutive metopes, and consisting typically of a rectangular block with two vertical grooves or glyphs, and two chamfers or half grooves at the sides, together counting as a third glyph, and leaving three flat vertical bands on the face of the block.
Show More

Origin of triglyph

1555–65; < Latin triglyphus < Greek tríglyphos thrice-grooved, equivalent to tri- tri- + glyph(ḗ) glyph + -os adj. suffix
Related formstri·glyphed, adjectivetri·glyph·ic, tri·glyph·i·cal, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for triglyph

Historical Examples

  • Triglyph, the channelled feature in the frieze of the Doric order.

    Architecture

    Thomas Roger Smith

  • The short band, corresponding to the triglyph, beneath the tnia moulding which crowns the epistyle; the listel.

    History of Ancient Art

    Franz von Reber

  • Hence the metopes next to the corner columns do not come out perfectly square, but are too broad by half the width of a triglyph.

  • Those who would make the metopes all alike, make the outermost intercolumniations narrower by half the width of a triglyph.

  • A triglyph is one of those blocks cut with vertical channels, which seem to rest upon the epistyle and to support the cornice.

British Dictionary definitions for triglyph

triglyph

noun
  1. architect a stone block in a Doric frieze, having three vertical channels
Show More
Derived Formstriglyphic, adjective

Word Origin

C16: via Latin from Greek trigluphos three-grooved, from tri- tri- + gluphē carving. See glyph
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