triple

American  

[trip-uhl] / ˈtrɪp əl /

adjective

1. threefold; consisting of three parts.

   a triple knot.

2. of three kinds; threefold in character or relationship.

3. three times as great.

4. International Law. tripartite.

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noun

• triples
  plural

1. an amount, number, etc., three times as great as another.

2. a group, set, or series of three; something threefold; triad.

3. Also called three-base hit.  Baseball. a base hit that enables a batter to reach third base safely.

4. Bowling. three strikes in succession.

5. trifecta.

verb (used with object)

• triples,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tripled,
  past participle,  past
• tripling
  present participle

1. to make triple.

2. Baseball. to cause to come into home plate by a triple.

   to triple a runner home; to triple a run in.

verb (used without object)

• triples,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tripled,
  past participle,  past
• tripling
  present participle

1. to become triple.

2. Baseball. to make a triple.

triple British  

/ ˈtrɪpəl /

adjective

1. consisting of three parts; threefold

2. (of musical time or rhythm) having three beats in each bar

3. three times as great or as much

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noun

1. a threefold amount

2. a group of three

verb

1. to increase or become increased threefold; treble

Usage

What is a basic definition of triple? Triple describes something as being made of three parts or being three times as great. Triple also means a set of three. The word triple has several other senses as an adjective, noun, and verb. In any sense, the word triple always has to do with the number three. Triple often describes something that is made of three parts or contains three of something.

• Real-life examples: A triple-layer cake has three layers. A triple homicide involves the murder of three people. A triple-decker bus has three decks of seats. A cardplayer who has triple aces has three cards with aces on them.
• Used in a sentence: My famous triple-layer cake has two layers of chocolate cake and one layer of vanilla cake. 

Triple also often describes something that is three times as great as something else. For example, a couch that is triple the price of another couch costs three times as much.

• Used in a sentence: I sold my bike for $300, which is triple the $100 I paid for it.  

In this sense, triple is used as a verb to mean to multiply something by three. For example, if you triple 2, you get 6 because 2 x 3 = 6.

• Used in a sentence: I think I will triple the tablespoons of sugar in the next batch of lemonade from 2 tablespoons to 6. 

Triple is also a noun that means a set of three. The word triplet is also commonly used in this sense.

• Used in a sentence: The shirts were packaged together in triples of red, white, and blue.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• triply
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• triples
  plural

Participles

• tripling
  present
• tripled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• triple
  simple
• triples
  simple
• have tripled
  perfect
• has tripled
  perfect
• am tripling
  progressive
• are tripling
  progressive
• is tripling
  progressive
• have been tripling
  perfect progressive
• has been tripling
  perfect progressive

Past

• tripled
  simple
• had tripled
  perfect
• was tripling
  progressive
• were tripling
  progressive
• had been tripling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will triple
  simple
• will have tripled
  perfect
• will be tripling
  progressive
• will have been tripling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of triple

1325–75; Middle English (noun and v.) < Latin triplus (adj.), equivalent to tri- tri- + ( du ) plus duple

Explanation

Triple means to multiply by three. If you triple the number two, you get six, and six is the triple of the number two. In triple, you see tri which means three. You see this prefix in tricycle (three wheels), tripod (three legs), and triplet (three siblings born at the same time). To triple is to increase threefold, just as to double means to increase twofold, quadruple fourfold and quintuple fivefold. In each of these pairs, the former word is Latin based and the latter has Old English origins.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

triple triples tripled tripling

Freeman, on the other hand, started the season in triple A. But that didn’t split up the roommates.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026

This tournament inadvertently became part of a perfect storm which the triple killer's lawyers are now arguing "fatally undermined" the fairness of her trial.

From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026

“In baseball, you can’t do better than a triple play on defense,” they add.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026

The spread between crude-oil and diesel futures hit $101.86 on Monday, the first time the margin has hit triple digits, according to OPIS.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026

And two innings later, Jonathan smacked a triple into left field that scored the tying run.

From "Earthquake Terror" by Peg Kehret

Díaz gave up back-to-back triples to Geraldo Perdomo and Corbin Carroll to tie the score.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026

Moderna’s first-quarter revenue more than triples to $389 million, leading to a narrower quarterly loss of $1.34 billion.

From Barron's ● May 1, 2026

That number nearly triples in the next older cohort of 60 to 64, and jumps to nearly 70% by the ages of 65 to 69.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 22, 2026

Or, perhaps, it’s simply that triples really is best: a blitzed corn chip base, a sweet corn body and a final, salty flurry of chips on top.

From Salon ● Apr. 16, 2026

I graduated from playing fours to triples and then to pairs.

From "Ugly" by Robert Hoge

Driven by memory-chip makers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix—which soared to trillion-dollar valuations—the benchmark Kospi index more than tripled in value.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

Canada has tripled its holdings of Treasurys in the past five years to $460 billion.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 24, 2026

Moderna stock nearly tripled in value by the close, helped by a major short squeeze.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

Mothers Matter, a charity that supports new parents and specialises in mental health, said demand for its services has "doubled, if not tripled"

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

Michael says we’re up over sixty thousand links, and lengths of chain hang everywhere, doubled, tripled, and quadrupled up.

From "Linked" by Gordon Korman

The government has set an ambitious target of tripling annual copper output to three million metric tonnes by 2031.

From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026

Mattel said the movie was a success, more than tripling the brand’s toy sales, and continues to reach new audiences on streaming.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

Charter rates for the so-called Very Large Crude Carriers, the most-watched vessels in the oil trade, have surged during the conflict, at times tripling from about $100,000 a day in peacetime.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026

The U.S. tasked Lockheed Martin, maker of the Patriot’s PAC-3 MSE variant, with more than tripling its annual output up to 2,000 missiles by 2030.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

Technology had been moving so quickly, doubling, tripling, quadrupling in power.

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel

Related Words

• threefold