Word.ws English Dictionary

third rails

third rails is the plural of third rail.

Meaning of third rail

Noun

third rail (plural third rails)

  1. The electrified rail that runs beside or between train tracks to power electric trains.
    • The system voltage is 630 volts d.c. and the supply to the trains is by top-contact third rail with running rail return.1956 October, “Recent Changes on the Tyneside Electrified Lines”, in Railway Magazine, page 659
  2. (broadly) Anything that is controversial or dangerous to come into contact with, or is best avoided.
    • tax hikes as a third rail in U.S. politics

Questions about third rails

What is third rails the plural of?
Third rails is the plural of third rail.

Words near third rails in the dictionary

  1. Third Positionist
  2. Third Positionists
  3. third pounder
  4. third pounders
  5. third rail
  6. third rails
  7. third rate
  8. third rates
  9. third reading
  10. third readings
  11. Third Reich

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: third rails (page history and authors); third rail (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.

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Cite this entry: “third rails.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/third_rails. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.