third

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English

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English numbers (edit)
30
 ←  2 3 4  → 
    Cardinal: three
    Ordinal: third
    Latinate ordinal: tertiary
    Reverse order ordinal: third to last, third from last, last but two
    Latinate reverse order ordinal: antepenultimate
    Adverbial: three times, thrice
    Multiplier: threefold
    Latinate multiplier: triple
    Distributive: triply
    Group collective: trio, threesome
    Multipart collective: triplet
    Greek or Latinate collective: triad
    Greek collective prefix: tri-
    Latinate collective prefix: tri-
    Fractional: third
    Latinate fractional prefix: trient-
    Elemental: thrin, triplet
    Greek prefix: trito-
    Number of musicians: trio, triplet
    Number of years: triennium

Etymology

PIE word
*tréyes

From Middle English thirde, thridde, from Old English þridda, from Proto-Germanic *þridjô, from Pre-Germanic *tretyós, a remodeling of Proto-Indo-European *tr̥tyós.

Pronunciation

Adjective

third (not comparable)

  1. The ordinal form of the cardinal number three; Coming after the second.
    The third tree from the left is my favorite.
    • 2012 October 8, Daniel W. Patterson, The True Image: Gravestone Art and the Culture of Scotch Irish Settlers in the Pennsylvania and Carolina Backcountry, UNC Press Books, →ISBN, page 141:
      The second and third quarters of the shield are indecipherable on the stone but clearer in two other representations of the arms, a painted wooden funeral hatchment for Mary Davie []

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Noun

third (countable and uncountable, plural thirds)

  1. The person or thing in the third position.
    Jones came in third.
  2. One of three equal parts of a whole.
    He ate a third of the pie. Divided by two-thirds.
    • 2023 December 27, Philip Haigh, “All eyes are on the DfT as rolling stock concerns deepen”, in RAIL, number 999, page 19:
      Despite these uncertainties, Clarke told MPs he was convinced of the need to order trains powered by batteries. He said: "We're calling for a 'no regrets' order of battery trains because we see them always having a future. We see them being fundable, financeable, similar cost to diesel trains, and we know that however much electrification we would aspire to do, there's always going to be at least a third of the network that isn't electrified.
  3. (uncountable) The third gear of a gearbox.
    Now put it into third.
  4. (music) An interval consisting of the first and third notes in a scale.
    They sing in thirds.
  5. (baseball) third base
    The play ended with Jones standing on third.
  6. (golf) A handicap of one stroke every third hole.
  7. A third-class degree, awarded to the lowest achievers in an honours degree programme
  8. (archaic) One sixtieth of a second, i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system. Also formerly known as a tierce.

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Verb

third (third-person singular simple present thirds, present participle thirding, simple past and past participle thirded)

  1. (informal) To agree with a proposition or statement after it has already been seconded.
  2. To divide into three equal parts.

Related terms

English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Translations

See also

Anagrams