Treble

How to spell treble

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce treble

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does treble mean?

1. nounThe high-pitched range of sound, voice, or instruments, or the tone control that adjusts it.
2. adjectiveThree times as much or as many; threefold.

Treble in a sentence

• noun

  He turned the treble down because the recording sounded too sharp.

• adjective

  The new contract paid a treble bonus for weekend shifts.

• noun

  The young chorister sang the treble part beautifully.

• adjective

  She placed a treble stitch along the seam for extra strength.

Where does treble come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin triplus, meaning 'threefold' or 'triple', which itself was built from tri- 'three' and a root tied to 'fold'. It reached English in the 1300s through Old French treble, a variant of the more familiar triple. The musical meaning came from medieval Latin triplum, the name for the highest of three voice parts in early polyphonic singing, so 'treble' settled into English as the word for the high-pitched range. The same tri- ancestor still sits inside 'triple', 'triangle', and 'trio', which is a useful reminder that the heart of the word is the number three. The spelling trap is the unstressed second syllable, written -ble rather than the -bel a writer might expect from the sound.

How the word is built

• treb- (from Latin triplus: threefold)
• -le (ending reshaped in Old French and English)