third way
third way noun: an approach or solution which strives for an alternative to or middle ground between two opposing viewpoints.
Noun (1)
third way (plural third ways)
- An approach or solution which strives for an alternative to or middle ground between two opposing viewpoints.
- It is a place of no compromise, thought Guillam, a place of no third way.1979, John Le Carré, Smiley's People, Folio Society, published 2010, page 358
- Synonyms:
- via media
- An ideology which seeks to find middle ground between right- and left-wing politics, associated during the 1990s with various centre-left political parties in Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
- He believes the left must be radical—the opposite of the social democratic left or “Third Way” politics espoused by Bill Clinton and later Tony Blair, which he says betrayed the people to side with big business and the wealthy.2025 May 3, Leila Abboud, “Lunch with the FT: Jean-Luc Mélenchon”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see third, way.
Noun (2) capitalized: Third Way
Third Way
- Alternative letter-case form of third way.
Synonyms of third way
Forms of third way
| plural | third ways |
|---|
Questions about third way
- What does third way mean?
- Third way means an approach or solution which strives for an alternative to or middle ground between two opposing viewpoints.
- What part of speech is third way?
- Third way is a noun.
- What is the plural of third way?
- The plural of third way is third ways.
Words near third way in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: third way (page history and authors); Third Way (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:
Cite this entry: “third way.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/third_way. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.