tribrach

UK/ˈtɹaɪbɹæk/

tribrach noun: a metrical foot consisting of three short syllables.

Noun (1)

tribrach (plural tribrachs)

A metrical foot consisting of three short syllables.
- For your foote tribracchus of all three short, ye haue very few trissillables.1589, George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie, book ii, chapter xiii (Arb.), page 133
- We may vse a Spondee or Iambick and sometime a Tribrack or Dactile.1602, Thomas Campion, chapter IV, in Observations in the Art of English Poesie, page 11

Noun (2)

tribrach (plural tribrachs)

A figure or object having three arms or branches.
- An optical plummet, built into either the tribrach or alidade of total station instruments, permits accurate centering over a point.(surveying) A circular platform on three legs, each having levelling screws, used to connect a theodolite to a tripod. 2006, Paul R. Wolf, Charles D. Ghilani, chapter 8, in Elementary Surveying, 11th...
1. A tribrachial prehistoric flint implement.
  - In a recent examination of the registers of the Ryde Philosophical Society, Mr. Martin has found, as I have been informed through Mr. Westropp’s kindness, the entry, that the flint tribrach was presented to the collection by the late Dr. Martin in 1853, with other objects from Ventnor, and as...1873, Albert Way, “Notes on an Unique Implement of Flint, Found, as Stated, in the Isle of Wight”, in The Archæological Journal, XXX, page 31
  - A singular instrument chipped out of flint, like three celts conjoined…, so as to form a sort of tribrach.1897, Sir John Evans, chapter IV, in The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain, revised second edition, page 78

tribrach meaning in Sanskrit

tribrach in Sanskrit

a tribrach: ताण्डव tāṇḍava

Examples of tribrach in a sentence

Tribrachus or Tribrachys, (Gr[eek]) a Foot in Greek and Latin Verſe, conſiſting of three ſhort Syllables; as Pŏpŭlŭs.[1706, Edward Phillips, compiler, J[ohn] K[ersey the younger], “Tribrachus or Tribrachys”, in The New World of Words: Or, Universal English...
Of all the resolved feet, the Tribrach in Trochaic verse with its ictus on the first syllable ⏑́⏑⏑ is most readily recognised by the ear as equivalent to the Trochee.1827, the Rev’d Canon James Tate, An Introduction to the Principal Greek Tragic and Comic Metres in Scansion, Structure, and Ictus (second...
If the range of pure tribrachic measure, or of tribrachs intermingled with trochees, appears much wider in our song-books than in volumes of poetry written to be read.1866, John Stuart Blackie, Homer and the Iliad, volume I, page 401:
The plain tribrach is frequent in every one’s reading.1885, Thomas Dwight Goodell, “Quantity in English Verse”, in Transactions of the American Philological Association, XVI, page 88:

Forms of tribrach

plural	tribrachs
alternative form	tribracchus
alternative form	tribrack
alternative form	tribrachus
alternative form	tribrachys
alternative form	tribrac

Origin of tribrach

PIE word *tréyes From the Latin tribrachys, from the Ancient Greek τρῐ́βρᾰχῠς (trĭ́brăkhŭs), from τρῐ- (trĭ-, “tri-”) + βρᾰχῠ́ς (brăkhŭ́s, “short”). Compare the French tribraque.

English tri- + Ancient Greek βρᾰχῑ́ων (brăkhī́ōn, “arm”)

Words formed from tribrach

tribrachic
tribrachial

Questions about tribrach

What does tribrach mean?: Tribrach means a metrical foot consisting of three short syllables.
What is tribrach in Sanskrit?: Tribrach in Sanskrit is ताण्डव (tāṇḍava). See Tribrach meaning in Sanskrit.
How do you use tribrach in a sentence?: Tribrachus or Tribrachys, (Gr[eek]) a Foot in Greek and Latin Verſe, conſiſting of three ſhort Syllables; as Pŏpŭlŭs.
What part of speech is tribrach?: Tribrach is a noun.
How do you pronounce tribrach?: Tribrach is pronounced /ˈtɹaɪbɹæk/ (UK).
What is the plural of tribrach?: The plural of tribrach is tribrachs.

Words near tribrach in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: tribrach (page history and authors); ताण्डव (Sanskrit) (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: 2026-09-02

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