triglyph

[trahy-glif]

noun Architecture.

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.

Nearby words

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. 2019

Examples from the Web for triglyph

Thus, in the Doric temple, the triglyph and cornice are unimitative; or imitative only of artificial cuttings of wood.
The Seven Lamps of Architecture|John Ruskin
The exterior is quite untouched, triglyph cornice, Doric columns, all well past the century mark.
Seaport in Virginia|Gay Montague Moore
Those who would make the metopes all alike, make the outermost intercolumniations narrower by half the width of a triglyph.
Ten Books on Architecture|Vitruvius
The short band, corresponding to the triglyph, beneath the tnia moulding which crowns the epistyle; the listel.
History of Ancient Art|Franz von Reber

A triglyph is one of those blocks cut with vertical channels, which seem to rest upon the epistyle and to support the cornice.
How to judge architecture|Russell Sturgis

British Dictionary definitions for triglyph

triglyph

noun

architect a stone block in a Doric frieze, having three vertical channels

Derived Formstriglyphic, adjective

Word Origin for triglyph

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