triplet

[trip-lit]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR triplet ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

one of three children or offspring born at the same birth.

triplets, three offspring born at one birth.

any group or combination of three.

Prosody. three successive verses or lines, especially when rhyming and of the same length; a stanza of three lines.

Also called tercet. Music. a group of three notes to be performed in the time of two ordinary notes of the same kind.

an assembled imitation gem with three parts, the center one giving the color, the top and bottom, sometimes genuine, supplying the wearing qualities.

Genetics. a sequence of three nucleotides; a codon in messenger RNA and an anticodon in transfer RNA.

Optics. a compound lens in which three lenses are combined.

triplets, (in some card games) three cards of the same denomination.

Origin of triplet

First recorded in 1650–60; triple + -et

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for triplet

threesome, triumvirate, trilogy, troika, triad, leash, triple, trinity, trine, triangle, triplicate, triptych, trey, ternion, trio, triplicity, third, trichotomy, trivium, ternary

Examples from the Web for triplet

Contemporary Examples of triplet

Triplet panda cubs born this past July were reunited with their mother, Juxiao, in a Chinese zoo this week.
‘Sexual’ Barbershop Quartet, a Panda Family Reunion, and More Viral Videos
The Daily Beast Video
December 14, 2014
Music aficionados recognize this rhythm as a triplet or “hemiola”: the playing of two different musical patterns simultaneously.
The Goldilocks of Black Holes
Matthew R. Francis
August 24, 2014

Historical Examples of triplet

This is a War Ballad, in triplet stanzas with 'duplication.'
Select Masterpieces of Biblical Literature
Various
Dr. Triplet's monument now stands in the place where this did.
Brief Lives (Vol. 2 of 2)
John Aubrey
Dr. Triplet came to give his master a visit, and he whip't him.
Brief Lives (Vol. 1 of 2)
John Aubrey
Hunt imitated Dryden in the use of both alexandrine and triplet.
English Verse
Raymond MacDonald Alden, Ph.D.
A combination of two lenses is called a doublet—of three, a triplet.
A Treatise on Physiology and Hygiene
Joseph Chrisman Hutchison

British Dictionary definitions for triplet

triplet

noun

a group or set of three similar things

one of three offspring born at one birth

music a group of three notes played in a time value of two, four, etc

chem a state of a molecule or free radical in which there are two unpaired electrons

Word Origin for triplet

C17: from triple, on the model of doublet

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

Word Origin and History for triplet

1650s, "three successive lines of poetry," from triple; perhaps patterned on doublet. Extended to a set of three of anything in 1733, and to three children at the same birth in 1787 (another word for this was trin, 1831, on the model of twin). Musical meaning "three notes played in the time of two" is from 1801.

triplet in Medicine

triplet

[trĭp′lĭt]

n.

Any of three children delivered at the same birth.

A set of three similar objects, such as a compound lens in a microscope formed of three planoconvex lenses.

A unit of three successive nucleotides in a DNA or RNA molecule that codes for a specific amino acid; a codon or anticodon.