Word.ws English Dictionary

three

UK/θɹiː/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/θɹɪj/

three numeral: a numerical value equal to 3; the number following two and preceding four. Also the abbreviation of three-pointer.

three: a numerical value equal to 3; the number following two and preceding four
Image: Dcbelanger, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Numeral

three

  1. A numerical value equal to 3; the number following two and preceding four.
    • Venters began to count them—one—two—three—four—on up to sixteen.1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC
    • There is a soft-mat seat (which originally had a palm fiber underwebbing) supported by three curved transverse braces.1995, Nancy Berliner, Sarah Handler, Friends of the House, →ISBN, page 79
    Synonyms:
    leash, tether
  2. Describing a set or group with three elements.

Noun

three (plural threes)

  1. The digit/figure 3.
    • In our example, 1210 has 1 zero, 2 ones, 1 two and 0 threes.2008 March 2, Tanya Khovanova, “Autobiographical Numbers”, in arXiv, page 1
  2. Anything measuring three units, as length.
    • Put all the threes in a separate container.
  3. A person who is three years old.
    • All the threes will go in Mrs. Smith's class, while I'll take the fours and fives.
  4. The playing card featuring three pips.
  5. Three o'clock, either a.m. or p.m.
    • It was a weary time. A carriage clock had been placed on the discoloured wooden mantelpiece, and slowly its hands crept on from one to two and from two to three.1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “In which Three Investigators Come across a Dark Soul”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published...

Also used as

three is also the abbreviation of three-pointer.

three meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

three in Hindi

cardinal number 3
तीन tīn, त्रि tri
digit/figure 3
तीन tīn
playing card
तिक्की tikkī

three in Tamil

cardinal number 3
மூன்று mūṉṟu, மூணு mūṇu
digit/figure 3
மூன்று mūṉṟu

three in Marathi

cardinal number 3
तीन tīn

three in Urdu

cardinal number 3
تِین tīn, ۳
More languagesFewer languages
three in Bengali
তিন tin
three in Telugu
మూడు mūḍu
three in Malayalam
മൂന്നു mūnnu, മൂന്ന് mūnnŭ
three in Kannada
ಮೂರು: mūru
three in Punjabi
ਤਿੰਨ tinn, تِنّ tinn, تْرَے trai
three in Gujarati
ત્રણ traṇ
three in Odia
ତିନି tini
three in Sanskrit
त्रि tri, त्रयं trayaṃ
three in Sinhala
තුන tuna
three in Assamese
তিনি tini
three in Nepali
तीन tīna
three in Pashto
درې dre, ٣
three in Tagalog
tatlo
three in Arabic
ثَلَاثَة ṯalāṯa, ثَلَاث ṯalāṯ, تلاتة talāta, ثلاثة talāta
three in Malay
tiga, telu, tri
three in Indonesian
tiga
three in Persian
سِه se, ۳, سو so
three in Thai
สาม sǎam
three in Vietnamese
ba, số ba
three in Myanmar
သုံး sum:
Sindhi
ٽي ti
Dhivehi
ތިން tin̊
Dzongkha
གསུམ gsum

Examples of three in a sentence

  • Now we continue zooming-in in three different directions depending on the number of ones.2008 March 2, Tanya Khovanova, “Autobiographical Numbers”, in arXiv, page 2:
  • The beetles are named Binburrum articuno, Binburrum moltres and Binburrum zapdos after three rare Pokémon: Articuno, Moltres and Zapdos.2021 September 15, Hannah Ryan, “RuPaul has a new namesake – and it’s a fabulous, rainbow-colored fly”, in CNN:

All 40 example sentences with three

Synonyms of three

Forms of three

Numeral
alternative pronunciation-spellingfree
alternative pronunciation-spellingtree
alternative pronunciation-spellingt'ree
alternative form (obsolete)thre
alternative form (obsolete)þree
alternative form (obsolete)threy
alternative form (obsolete)thrie
Noun
pluralthrees

Plural of three: threes

Origin of three

From Middle English thre, threo, thrie, thri, from Old English þrī, from Proto-West Germanic *þrīʀ, from Proto-Germanic *þrīz, from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes. Doublet of tres and trey. Cognate with German drei, Albanian tre, Armenian երեք (erekʻ), Latin trēs, Latvian trīs, Lithuanian trỹs, Greek τρεῖς (treís), Old Church Slavonic трьѥ (trĭje), and others.

Words formed from three

Phrases with three

96 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with three

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about three

What does three mean?
Three means a numerical value equal to 3; the number following two and preceding four.
What is three in Hindi?
Three in Hindi is तीन (tīn), त्रि (tri), तिक्की (tikkī). See Three meaning in Hindi.
How do you use three in a sentence?
Now we continue zooming-in in three different directions depending on the number of ones.
What part of speech is three?
Three can be a numeral or a noun.
How do you pronounce three?
Three is pronounced /θɹɪj/ (British).

Words near three in the dictionary

  1. threave
  2. threaves
  3. thred
  4. Thredbo
  5. threds
  6. three
  7. Three Amigos
  8. three bags full, sir
  9. three body problem
  10. three body problems
  11. Three Bridges

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: three (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: en-us-three.ogg.

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