ternary
/ˈtɜː.nə.ɹi/US/ˈtɝ.nə.ɹi/
ternary adjective: made up of three things.
Adjective
ternary (not comparable)
- Made up of three things.
- Arranged in groups of three.
- To the base three.
- Perhaps the prettiest number system of all is the balanced ternary notation1999, Donald Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, 3rd edition, volume 2, →ISBN, page 207
- Synonyms:
- trinary
- Having three variables.
- Containing, or consisting of, three different parts, as elements, atoms, groups, or radicals, which are regarded as having different functions or relations in the molecule.
- Sodic hydroxide, NaOH, is a ternary compound.
- Of an operator taking three operands.
- An "if…then…else" construction is called a ternary operator when it is combined in one line of a program.
Noun
ternary (plural ternaries)
- A group of three things; a trio, threesome or tierce.
- The Holy Trinity.
- And albeit these thynges be waighty and truthes of great importance, yet (by the infinite goodnes of the Almighty Ternarie,) Artificiall Methods and easy wayes are made, by which the zelous Philosopher, may wyn nere this Riuerish Ida, this Mountayne of Contemplation […] .1570, John Dee, in H. Billingsley (trans.) Euclid, Elements of Geometry, Preface
- The ternary operator.
- Although this code is technically correct, you should be cautious when using ternaries. Many developers actually don't like using ternaries because it's easy to miss small details or create quirky behaviors.Richie Miller, Computer Programming Bible: 12 In 1
ternary meaning in Tamil
ternary in Tamil
- முந்நிலை, மூன்று வேதியல் பொருளாளான, வரிசையில் மூன்றாவது
Synonyms of ternary
Forms of ternary
| plural | ternaries |
|---|
Origin of ternary
From Late Latin ternārius (“consisting of three things”), from ternī (“three each”).
Words formed from ternary
- biternary
- heteroternary
- negaternary
- nonternary
- pseudoternary
- ternarily
- ternary alloy
- ternary code
- ternary complex
- ternary compound
- ternary computer
- ternary diagram
- ternary expansion
- ternary form
- ternary Golay code
- ternary Golay conjecture
- ternary incremental representation
- ternary logarithm
- ternary logic
- ternary name
- ternary notation
- ternary numeral system
- ternary operation
- ternary operator
- ternary plot
- ternary pulse code modulation
- ternary quantic
- ternary search
- ternary search tree
- ternary signal
- ternary system
- ternary tree
Phrases with ternary
Questions about ternary
- What does ternary mean?
- Ternary means made up of three things.
- What is ternary in Tamil?
- Ternary in Tamil is முந்நிலை, மூன்று வேதியல் பொருளாளான, வரிசையில் மூன்றாவது. See Ternary meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is ternary?
- Ternary can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce ternary?
- Ternary is pronounced /ˈtɜː.nə.ɹi/ (UK).
Words near ternary in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ternary (page history and authors); ternary (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ternary.wav.
Cite this entry: “ternary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ternary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.