three-way
three-way adjective: relating to three different directions.
Adjective
three-way (not comparable)
- Relating to three different directions.
- a three-way valve
- a three-way junction
Noun
three-way (plural three-ways)
- Sexual activity involving three individuals.
- A guy Julian and you had a three-way with millions of years ago. I used to watch you guys screw through the keyhole sometimes.1992, Dennis Cooper, Frisk, page 117
- I had a three-way with two other women in my class.1995, Deborah Abbott, Ellen Farmer, From Wedded Wife to Lesbian Life: Stories of Transformation, page 263
- Synonyms:
- threesome, ménage à trois
- A serving of Cincinnati chili with spaghetti and cheese.
- Synonym of three-card monte.
- Synonyms:
- three-card monte
Examples of three-way in a sentence
- Three-aspect colour-light signal with three-way junction indicator, Bow Junction, Eastern Region1951 April, “British Railway Signalling since 1925”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 229, photo caption:
- Is a three-way with a 21-year-old a bad idea for Richard's birthday?2002 February 3, Allan Heinberg, “A ‘Vogue’ Idea”, in Sex and the City, season 4, episode 17, spoken by Samantha:
- But how many men will actually admit to having had a three-way with another man and one woman?2007, Lainie Speiser, Threesomes: For Couples Who Want to Know More, page 22:
- Supermodel Jenny Shimizu provides mechanic tips (and hints at a previous three-way with Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista).2024 February 13, Wendy Syfret, “Hi Octane: Sofia Coppola’s starry 90s series feels like a gen X fever dream”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Synonyms of three-way
Forms of three-way
| plural | three-ways |
|---|---|
| alternative form | threeway |
Origin of three-way
The sense referring to a serving of Cincinnati chili was coined in the 1920s by Tom and John Kiradjieff, Slavic-Macedonian immigrants to Cincinnati, for their Empress Chili chain. Doublet of trivia.
Words formed from three-way
Phrases with three-way
Questions about three-way
- What does three-way mean?
- Three-way means relating to three different directions.
- How do you use three-way in a sentence?
- Three-aspect colour-light signal with three-way junction indicator, Bow Junction, Eastern Region
- What part of speech is three-way?
- Three-way can be an adjective or a noun.
Words near three-way in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: three-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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-three-way.wav.
Cite this entry: “three-way.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/three-way. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.