three

noun

1. a cardinal number, 2 plus 1.
2. a symbol for this number, as 3 or III.
3. a set of this many persons or things.
4. a playing card, die face, or half of a domino face with three pips.

adjective

5. amounting to three in number.

Idioms

6. three sheets in the wind. sheet2(def 3).

noun

1. the cardinal number that is the sum of two and one and is a prime numberSee also number (def. 1)
2. a numeral, 3, III, (iii), representing this number
3. the amount or quantity that is one greater than two
4. something representing, represented by, or consisting of three units such as a playing card with three symbols on it
5. Also called: three o’clock three hours after noon or midnight

determiner

6. 1. amounting to threethree ships
   2. (as pronoun)three were killed

n.Old English þreo, fem. and neuter (masc. þri, þrie), from Proto-Germanic *thrijiz (cf. Old Frisian thre, Middle Dutch and Dutch drie, Old High German dri, German drei, Old Norse þrir, Danish tre), from PIE *tris- (cf. Sanskrit trayas, Avestan thri, Greek treis, Latin tres, Lithuanian trys, Old Church Slavonic trye, Irisn and Welsh tri “three”). 3-D first attested 1952, abbreviation of three-dimensional (1878). Three-piece suit is recorded from 1909. Three cheers for ______ is recorded from 1751. Three-martini lunch is attested from 1972. Three-ring circus first recorded 1898. Three-sixty “complete turnaround” is from 1927, originally among aviators, in reference to the number of degrees in a full circle. Three musketeers translates French les trois mousquetaires, title of an 1844 novel by Alexandre Dumas père.