trinity

See also: Trinity

English

Etymology

trine +‎ -ity, from Middle English trinite, from Anglo-Norman trinite and Old French ternite (modern French trinité), from Latin trīnitās, from trīni (“three each”), from trēs (“three”). Displaced native Old English þrines (literally “threeness”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɹɪnɪti/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪnɪti

Noun

trinity (plural trinities)

1. A group or set of three people or things; three things combined into one.
   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     But when the moon rose and the breeze awakened, and the sedges stirred, and the cat's-paws raced across the moonlit ponds, and the far surf off Wonder Head intoned the hymn of the four winds, the trinity, earth and sky and water, became one thunderous symphony—a harmony of sound and colour silvered to a monochrome by the moon.

2. The state of being three; independence of three things; things divided into three.

Synonyms

• (group of three): threesome, triad, trio, trine, troika, triumvirate; see also Thesaurus:trio
• (independence of three): threeness; see also Thesaurus:threeness

Derived terms

• herb trinity
• holy trinity
• impossible trinity
• nontrinitarian
• nontrinitarianism
• Texas trinity
• trinitarian
• unholy trinity

 

Related terms

• triangle
• triarchy
• triatomicity
• trichotomy
• trinary
• tripartiteness
• triple
• triumvirate

 

Translations

group or set of three people or things

• Albanian: trini (sq) f
• Arabic: ثَالُوث m (ṯālūṯ), تَثْلِيث m (taṯlīṯ)
• Armenian: երրորդություն (hy) (errordutʻyun)
• Belarusian: тро́йка f (trójka), тро́йца f (trójca), трыадзі́нства n (tryadzínstva)
• Bulgarian: тро́йка (bg) f (trójka), тро́ица (bg) f (tróica), триеди́нство n (triedínstvo)
• Catalan: trinitat f, trio (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 三位一體／三位一体 (zh) (sānwèiyītǐ)

• Czech: trojice (cs) f
• Danish: treenighed c
• Dutch: drie-eenheid (nl) f, drievuldigheid f
• Estonian: kolmainsus (et)
• Finnish: kolminaisuus (fi)
• French: triade (fr) f, trinité (fr) f
• Galician: trindade (gl) f
• Georgian: სამება (sameba)
• German: Dreifaltigkeit (de) f, Trinität (de) f, Dreiheit f
• Greek: τριάδα (el) f (triáda)
• Icelandic: þríeyki n, þrenning f
• Irish: tríonóid f
• Italian: trinità (it) f
• Japanese: 三つ組 (みつぐみ, mitsugumi), 三位一体 (ja) (さ​んみいったい, sanmiittai)
• Korean: 삼위일체(三位一體) (ko) (samwiilche)
• Latvian: trīsvienība f
• Lithuanian: trejybę f
• Macedonian: тројство n (trojstvo)
• Manx: treeaght f
• Maori: tokotoru
• Old English: þrines f
• Persian: تثلیث (fa) (taslis)
• Polish: trójca (pl) f, trójjedność f
• Portuguese: trio (pt) m
• Romanian: treime (ro) f
• Russian: тро́йка (ru) f (trójka), тро́ица (ru) f (tróica), тро́е (ru) pl (tróje), триеди́нство (ru) n (trijedínstvo)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: тро́јство n, тро̀јица f

  Roman: trójstvo (sh) n, tròjica (sh) f

• Slovak: trojica f
• Slovene: trojica f
• Spanish: trío (es) m, trinidad (es) f
• Swahili: utatu (sw)
• Tagalog: tatluhan
• Ukrainian: трі́йка (uk) f (tríjka), трі́йця f (tríjcja), триє́дність f (tryjédnistʹ)
• Urdu: تَثْلیث (taslīs)

See also

• binitarian
• binity (“twoness”)
• duality (“twoness”)
• quaternity (“fourness”)
• quinity (“fiveness”)
• Trinity
• Trinity College
• triunity
• unitarian
• unity (“oneness”)