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(chemistry) Used in combination with a known element name (e.g. 'tri-silicon') to designate an unknown element that would reside three periods lower than the known element on a Mendeleev-type periodic table. See Mendeleev's predicted elements.
The prefix tri- is mainly used in the names of chemical compounds, e.g. trikloorifluorimetaani or in words that have been loaned from other languages with the tri- prefix already there, e.g. trigonometria, trikolori. For other words, the prefix kolmi-, which is derived from the Finnish word kolme(“three”) is preferred.