Word.ws English Dictionary

treble

/ˈtɹɛbəl/

treble adjective: pertaining to the highest singing voice or part in harmonized music. Also the alternative form of tribble.

Adjective

treble (not comparable)

  1. Pertaining to the highest singing voice or part in harmonized music.
    • He put his cigar in his mouth, and, with his right hand, up in the treble keys, he began to play, in octaves, the melody of a song called "The Kinkajou," which, somewhat notably, had shifted into and ostensibly out of popularity before he was born.1957, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, “Zooey”, in Franny and Zooey, published 1961
    Antonyms:
    deep
  2. (dated) Threefold, triple.
    • A lofty tower, and strong on every side / With treble walls.1697, John Dryden, chapter 6, in The Aeneid by Virgil
    • Every subscriber of one penny per week, who is sixty years of age, or upwards, and under four-score, to be entitled to receive treble his subscription at the end of the year; that is, his own subscription, and twice as much more.1806, The Orthodox Churchman’s Magazine and Review; or, A Treasury of Divine and Useful Knowledge, volume X, London: […] J. G. Barnard, […], and sold by F[rancis,] C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington...

Adverb

treble (not comparable)

  1. (dated) Trebly; triply.
    • Whose deserts might buy him treble1623 (first performance), John Fletcher, William Rowley, “The Maid in the Mill”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647...

Noun

treble (plural trebles)

  1. The highest singing voice (especially as for a boy) or part in musical composition.
    • He starts out by saying that there are three sights, the mene, treble, and quadreble, but actually he discusses only two, the treble and quadreble, both of which are read at the transposition of an octave.1959, The Musical quarterly - Volume 45, page xlvi
    • The voices include a counter (always below the tenor), a countertenor (moving above and below the tenor), mene, treble, and quadreble.1991, Blanche Gangwere, Music history during the Renaissance period, 1425-1520, page 25
  2. A person or instrument having a treble voice or pitch; a boy soprano.
  3. The highest tuned in a ring of bells.
  4. Any high-pitched or shrill voice or sound.
  5. (dated) A threefold quantity or number; something having three parts or having been tripled.
  6. (dated) A drink with three portions of alcohol; a triple
  7. Any of the narrow areas enclosed by the two central circles on a dartboard, worth three times the usual value of the segment.
  8. Three goals, victories, awards etc. in a given match or season.
    • As for City, a domestic treble is off the cards and they must haul themselves off the floor quickly with the second leg of their last-16 Champions League tie against Barcelona on Wednesday.2014 March 9, Jacob Steinberg, “Wigan shock Manchester City in FA Cup again to reach semi-finals”, in The Guardian
    1. A win in the top league, top national cup and top continental cup in the same season.

Verb

treble (third-person singular simple present trebles, present participle trebling, simple past and past participle trebled)

  1. (dated, transitive) To multiply by three; to make into three parts, layers, or thrice the amount.
    • There is increasing evidence that cannabis use can act as a risk factor for the development of bipolar as well as psychotic disorders. A recent systematic review by Gibbs and colleagues identified several studies supporting a link between cannabis use and subsequent relapse of manic symptoms. This...2018 April 26, Tobias A Rowland, Steven Marwaha, “Epidemiology and risk factors for bipolar disorder”, in Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology, volume 8, number 9, →DOI, pages 251–269
    • German climate minister says speed of carbon cuts needs to be trebled [title]2022 January 11, Kate Connolly, “German climate minister says speed of carbon cuts needs to be trebled”, in The Guardian
    Synonyms:
    triple
  2. (dated, intransitive) To become multiplied by three or increased threefold.
    • I am more ſerious then my cuſtome; you
      Muſt be ſo too, if heed me: which to do
      Trebbles thee o're.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
  3. (intransitive) To make a shrill or high-pitched noise.
    Synonyms:
    keen, screech, shrill
  4. (transitive) To utter in a treble key; to whine.
    • He outrageously / (When I accused him) trebled his reply.1618, George Chapman, A Hymn to Hermes

Also used as

treble is also the alternative form of tribble.

treble meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Telugu and Malayalam

treble in Urdu

ٹریبل

treble in Bengali

ট্রেবল

treble in Telugu

ట్రెబల్, ట్రెబుల్, ట్రెబిల్

treble in Malayalam

ട്രെബിൾ, ട്രെബിൾ ചെയ്യാൻ
More languagesFewer languages
treble in Kannada
ಟ್ರೆಬಲ್
treble in Gujarati
ટ્રેબલ
treble in Nepali
ट्रेबल

Examples of treble in a sentence

  • The treble walls and ditches on the land side … diminish the extent of ground covered with houses.1837 Penny Cyclopedia, vol. 7, s.v. "Constantinople"
  • At the surface of the water it's fourteen pounds to the inch, thirty feet down it's double that; sixty, treble; ninety, four times1896, H. G. Wells, In the Abyss, Pearson's Magazine:

All 23 example sentences with treble

Synonyms of treble

7 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of treble

Forms of treble

Noun
pluraltrebles
Verb
third-person singular presenttrebles
present participletrebling
past participletrebled
pasttrebled

Origin of treble

PIE word *tréyes From Middle English treble, from Old French treble, from Latin triplus. Doublet of triple.

Words formed from treble

Phrases with treble

Words that rhyme with treble

Questions about treble

What does treble mean?
Treble means pertaining to the highest singing voice or part in harmonized music.
What is treble in Urdu?
Treble in Urdu is ٹریبل. See Treble meaning in Urdu.
How do you use treble in a sentence?
The treble walls and ditches on the land side … diminish the extent of ground covered with houses.
What part of speech is treble?
Treble can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce treble?
Treble is pronounced /ˈtɹɛbəl/.

Words near treble in the dictionary

  1. Trebeck
  2. Trebek
  3. Trebellian
  4. Trebizond
  5. Trebiș
  6. treble
  7. treble C
  8. treble clef
  9. treble clefs
  10. treble cliff
  11. treble cliffs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: treble (page history and authors); treble (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); treble (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); treble (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); treble (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); treble (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); treble (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); treble (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-treble.wav.

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