tripod

American  

[trahy-pod] / ˈtraɪ pɒd /

noun

• tripods
  plural

1. a stool, table, pedestal, etc., with three legs.

2. a three-legged stand or support, as for a camera or telescope.

3. the oracular seat of the priestess of Apollo at Delphi.

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tripod British  

/ ˈtraɪpɒd, ˈtrɪpədəl /

noun

1. an adjustable and usually collapsible three-legged stand to which a camera, etc, can be attached to hold it steady

2. a stand or table having three legs

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• tripodal
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• tripods
  plural

Etymology

Origin of tripod

1595–1605; < Latin tripod- (stem of tripūs ) < Greek tripod- (stem of trípous ) originally, three-footed. See tri-, -pod

Explanation

A tripod is a three-legged support for a camera. Once you try using a tripod for taking photographs, your sharp, beautiful pictures might make it hard to do without it. A tripod is a stand with three legs that holds a camera. Photographers and filmmakers use a tripod when they want the camera to be held completely still, without the slight bit of shaking that their hands might cause. Tripod comes from the Greek tripodos, "three-legged stool," made up of tri, or "three," plus podos, "foot." The word tripod was used in the past to mean anything with three legs, including vessels, stools, or tables.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tripod tripods

“I even filmed him badly back then — the sound was terrible and the camera fell off the tripod during the interview,” he recalls.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

He preferred an easygoing static tripod shot — a point Adrian contested, as is shown in the film.

From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026

As night fell on Tucson, a man in a reflector jacket parked his truck on the same hill where Williams held court, and deployed a tripod.

From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2026

For this video, though, the 21-year-old used a company-issued tripod and wore her Starbucks logo-emblazoned apron.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 2, 2025

On Tuesday evening Ashish set the camera on a little tripod he’d bought and looked through the screen.

From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon

Along the route, families arrive with lawn chairs, tents and tripods.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

Waiting with the sea of tripods outside the building most mornings of the trial was a queue of camp chairs.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2025

Photography is allowed — but flashes, tripods, monopods and selfie sticks are banned.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2025

Big backpacks, as well as tripods and other professional camera equipment, are also banned.

From Seattle Times ● May 13, 2024

When they arrived, they found no hundred-foot Martian tripods.

From "Spooked!" by Gail Jarrow