third
UK/θɜːd//θɚd/
third adjective: the ordinal form of the cardinal number three; Coming after the second. Also the ellipsis of third gear.
Adjective
third (not comparable)
- The ordinal form of the cardinal number three; Coming after the second.
- The third tree from the left is my favorite.
- 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[…]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
Noun
third (countable and uncountable, plural thirds)
- The person or thing in the third position.
- Jones came in third.
- One of three equal parts of a whole.
- He ate a third of the pie. Divided by two-thirds.
- Around a third of both Black and White respondents said they believed the opposition Labour Party to be institutionally racist.2020 June 22, Rob Picheta, “Most Black British people think the Conservative Party is institutionally racist, CNN poll finds”, in CNN
- Synonyms:
- one-third, ⅓, 1/3
- An interval consisting of the first and third notes in a scale.
- They sing in thirds.
- third base
- The play ended with Jones standing on third.
- A handicap of one stroke every third hole.
- A third-class degree, awarded to the lowest achievers in an honours degree programme
- One sixtieth of a second, i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system.
- […] thirds (sixtieths of seconds), fourths (sixtieths of thirds) and so on, but then it becomes very cumbersome.1994, John David North, The Fontana History of Astronomy and Cosmology, page xxi
- Synonyms:
- tierce
Verb
third (third-person singular simple present thirds, present participle thirding, simple past and past participle thirded)
Also used as
third is also the ellipsis of third gear.
third meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
third in Hindi
- the ordinal form of the cardinal number three — see also 3rd
- तीसरा tīsrā, तृतीय tŕtīya, तीजा tījā
- one of three equal parts of a whole
- तिहाई tihāī, तीहा tīhā
third in Tamil
- the ordinal form of the cardinal number three — see also 3rd
- மூன்றாம் mūṉṟām, மூன்றாவது mūṉṟāvatu
- one of three equal parts of a whole
- மூன்றிலொரு mūṉṟiloru
third in Marathi
- तिसरे
third in Urdu
- the ordinal form of the cardinal number three — see also 3rd
- تیسرا tīsrā, سِوَم sivam
More languagesFewer languages
- third in Bengali
- তৃতীয় tritiẏo, তেসরা teśora
- third in Telugu
- మూడో mūḍō
- third in Malayalam
- മൂന്നാം mūnnāṁ
- third in Kannada
- ಮೂರನೆಯದು, ಮೂರನೇಯದು
- third in Punjabi
- ਤੀਜਾ
- third in Gujarati
- ત્રીજું, ત્રીજો
- third in Sanskrit
- तृतीय tṛtīya
- third in Sinhala
- තුන්වැනි tunwæni
- third in Assamese
- তৃতীয় tritio
- third in Tagalog
- ikatlo, sangkatlo, katlo, saikatlo
- third in Arabic
- ثَالِث ṯāliṯ, ثَالِثَة ṯāliṯa, ثُلْث ṯulṯ
- third in Malay
- ketiga
- third in Indonesian
- ketiga
- third in Persian
- سوم sevvom, سیک siyak, seyek, سهیک se-yek
- third in Thai
- ที่สาม tîi-sǎam
- third in Vietnamese
- thứ ba, phần ba
- third in Myanmar
- တတိယ ta.ti.ya.
Examples of third in a sentence
- The island was a mile about, and a third of a mile across.
- First, second and third are the ordinal numbers corresponding to one, two and three.
- I bet after the third down, the kicker will replace the quarterback on the field.
Synonyms of third
Forms of third
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | thirds |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | thirds |
| present participle | thirding |
| past participle | thirded |
| past | thirded |
Origin of third
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.
Words formed from third
- adult third culture kid
- at third hand
- Earth's third pole
- Newton's third law
- petty officer third class
- safe third country
- third-act breakup
- third age
- third angle projection
- third art
- third baseman
- third best
- thirdborn
- third camp
- third-campism
- third-campist
- third-class
- third class
- third-class citizen
- third-class entity
- third-class object
- third-class value
- third conditional
- third contact
- third cosmic velocity
- third country
- third cousin
- third cover
- third cranial nerve
- third-culture kid
- third culture kid
- third degree
- third-degree
- third-degree burn
- third-degree murder
- third-degree relative
- third dimension
- third down
- thirder
- third estate
- third eye
- third finger
- third freedom rights
- third gender
- third grade
- third grader
- third-grader
- third-guarder
- thirdhand
- third-hand
- third hand
- third-hand smoke
- third inversion
- third island chain
- third language acquisition
- third last
- third leg
- third lieutenant
- third-line forcing
- thirdly
Phrases with third
- one third
- Third Day
- third man
- third men
- third sex
- third toe
- third way
- goal third
- third base
- third eyes
- third legs
- Third Mesa
121 more phrasesFewer phrases
- third rail
- third rate
- Third Rome
- third slip
- third toes
- third ways
- third year
- lower third
- third bases
- third bests
- third camps
- Third Coast
- third downs
- third gears
- third hands
- Third Month
- third order
- third party
- third penny
- third place
- third rails
- third rates
- Third Reich
- third sexes
- third shift
- third slips
- third space
- third wheel
- third world
- third years
- centre third
- third covers
- third grades
- Third Heaven
- third market
- third orders
- Third Period
- third places
- Third Planet
- third screen
- third sector
- third shifts
- third spaces
- third stream
- third string
- third tonsil
- third umpire
- third wheels
- neutral third
- Picardy third
- third basemen
- third classes
- third cousins
- third fingers
- third genders
- third graders
- third markets
- third officer
- third partier
- third parties
- third pennies
- third persons
- third pounder
- third reading
- third session
- third spacing
- third strings
- third to last
- third tonsils
- third umpires
- third worlder
- third contacts
- third officers
- third partiers
- third position
- third pounders
- third readings
- Third Republic
- third sessions
- third worlders
- augmented third
- third countries
- third from last
- third ventricle
- Third World War
- diminished third
- third dimensions
- third inversions
- third time lucky
- third ventricles
- third normal form
- Third Positionism
- Third Positionist
- third conditionals
- third culture kids
- third normal forms
- third order stream
- Third Positionists
- third order streams
- third wave feminist
- safe third countries
- third person limited
- third time's a charm
- third wave feminists
- Third Epistle of John
- Third Law of Robotics
- third party processor
- Third World briefcase
- third party processors
- third time's the charm
- Third World briefcases
- third angle projections
- third cosmic velocities
- third time is the charm
- third time pays for all
- adult third culture kids
- Third Intermediate Period
- this, that, and the third
- change a word, get a third
- petty officers third class
- first is the worst, second is the best, third is the one with the hairy chest
Words that rhyme with third
35 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about third
- What does third mean?
- Third means the ordinal form of the cardinal number three; Coming after the second.
- What is third in Hindi?
- Third in Hindi is तीसरा (tīsrā), तृतीय (tŕtīya), तीजा (tījā). See Third meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is third?
- Third can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce third?
- Third is pronounced /θɜːd/ (UK).
Words near third in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: third (page history and authors); third (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); third (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); third (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); third (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-third.ogg.
Cite this entry: “third.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/third. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.