Word.ws English Dictionary

thrain

thrain numeral: three, as coordinate term to (and used in similar sentences to) twain. Also the pronunciation spelling of train.

Numeral

thrain

  1. (humorous, nonstandard, often) Three, as coordinate term to (and used in similar sentences to) twain.
    • Or, all the churches give up their names and get married in a union organization—the twain (or "thrain") becoming one flesh. None of these things occurred at Pepperell.1921, Preacher and Homiletic Monthly, page 205
    • […] twain - yes, they used old words and proverbs and catch-phrases and slogans when they did not wish to face reality - shall meet, because if the twain, or the thrain, or the quain, or the multain complications of life, and love[…]1959, Christine Brooke-Rose, The Sycamore Tree

Also used as

thrain is also the pronunciation spelling of train.

Examples of thrain in a sentence

  • "[The] twain meet—or is that thrain?" "That's brilliant!" I said.1996, Alexis Page, Three-guy Weekend, Bantam Books for Young Readers, →ISBN:
  • […] sink me ship, master gunner, sink her, split her in twain—or thrain, if you feel like it.2011 11, Stephen Brennan, The Best War Stories Ever Told, Skyhorse Publishing Inc., →ISBN, page 535:
  • "Tis not an omen, but an assassin, Banh." […] "A thing may be twain or thrain at once, my student."2019 October 15, S. C. Emmett, The Throne of the Five Winds, Orbit, →ISBN:
  • I am torn in twain, thrain, and quatrain![…]2020 July 14, Eric Darton, Free City, Deep Vellum Publishing, →ISBN:

Forms of thrain

pluralthrains

Origin of thrain

Blend of three + twain.

Questions about thrain

What does thrain mean?
Thrain means three, as coordinate term to (and used in similar sentences to) twain.
How do you use thrain in a sentence?
"[The] twain meet—or is that thrain?" "That's brilliant!" I said.
What part of speech is thrain?
Thrain is a numeral.

Words near thrain in the dictionary

  1. Thracologists
  2. Thracology
  3. Thracomania
  4. Thrailkill
  5. Thrailkills
  6. thrain
  7. thrains
  8. thralage
  9. thraldom
  10. thraldoms
  11. Thrale

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thrain (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: “thrain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thrain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.