tripod
Americannoun
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a stool, table, pedestal, etc., with three legs.
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a three-legged stand or support, as for a camera or telescope.
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the oracular seat of the priestess of Apollo at Delphi.
noun
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an adjustable and usually collapsible three-legged stand to which a camera, etc, can be attached to hold it steady
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a stand or table having three legs
Other Word Forms
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.
Vocabulary lists containing tripod
The Circuit
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Mr. Popper’s Penguins
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Photography Lingo
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I tested it with my favorite accessory, Moft’s wallet tripod stand, which worked well.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 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
He would travel in his jeep with an assistant, armed with a pistol and a Vinten film camera, a tripod, and many rolls of film.
From BBC • Aug. 15, 2025
So when I got to set here, we had actual things to look at, not just a tennis ball and a tripod, which was fun for me.
From Salon • Oct. 26, 2024
To take a clear photograph, an agent had to hold the pen exactly eleven inches above a document, using his forearms as a kind of tripod.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
